Change Your LinkedIn Password to Protect Your Account

The blogosphere and mainstream media are blowing up with reports that LinkedIn has suffered a serious data breach, and that hackers have stolen upwards of 6.4 million user passwords from the social networking site. Online security experts are recommending that all LinkedIn users change their passwords to protect themselves.

Reuters reports: "The data was found on underground websites where criminal hackers frequently exchange stolen information, including scrambled passwords. The files only included passwords and not corresponding email addresses, which means that people who download the files and unscramble the passwords will not easily be able to access any accounts with compromised passwords. Yet analysts said it is likely that the hackers who stole the passwords also have the corresponding email addresses and would be able to access the accounts." For more information, read the rest of the Reuters story.

If you've got a LinkedIn account, you can follow these easy steps to change your password:

1. Login to LinkedIn

2. Click on your name in the upper right hand corner of the page

3. Click on "Settings" in the drop-down menu

4. About halfway down the next page, right under your e-mail address, it says "change password" in blue - click that and then enter your old password and enter your new password twice.

If the reports are true, however, LinkedIn users who have used the same password on other sites and accounts may have some serious password-changing homework to do.

Posted by Samantha Meinke