Technology blogs and news sites lit up this morning with news that millions of LinkedIn passwords had reportedly been leaked online. According to The Verge:
A user in a Russian forum is claiming to have hacked LinkedIn to the tune of almost 6.5 million account details. The user uploaded 6,458,020 hashed passwords, but no usernames. It’s not clear if they managed to download the usernames, but it’s likely that both have been downloaded.There is a possibility that this could be a hoax, but several people have said on Twitter that they found their real LinkedIn passwords as hashes on the list. Many of the hashes include “linkedin,” which seems to add credence to the claims.
LinkedIn hasn’t yet confirmed the breach, but it’s certainly a good idea to change your password just in case. If you were using the same username and password in several places, you’ll want to change them all.
Check out our recent post on creating secure passwords for more guidance.