It was revealed yesterday that LinkedIn had suffered a severe security breach and that more than 6.5 million passwords had been leaked onto a Russian website. United Leeds Endeavours passes on the advice from LinkedIn and internet security advisers.
Whilst the hack was initially just
suspected, today LinkedIn has confirmed that a number of passwords have been compromised though they will not admit how many. United Leeds Endeavours learnt later today that a number of
LinkedIn users have now been hit with email scams, suspected to be as a result of the hack. LinkedIn are expected to send an email to affected members which will explain the breach in more detail and give them information on how to reset their passwords.
After reading the advice from LinkedIn and other internet security experts, United Leeds Endeavours has put together a list of things to watch out for with your LinkedIn and email accounts:
1. If you receive and email from LinkedIn examine it carefully. Remember that the email itself might
well look legitimate and in the style that you have seen before.
2. Check the email address, if it looks
suspicious report it immediately.
3. The scam emails ask users to “confirm” their
email address by clicking on a link. The link then takes users to another site.
4. People’s whose accounts have been
affected will find their password no longer works. They will receive an email
from LinkedIn on how to change the password. This will not have any links in it
to click on! If your email does have links then it is a fake and you shouldn't click on them.
A representative for United Leeds
Endeavours expressed his concern over the situation. “This hack is clearly very
worrying for LinkedIn users. Whilst this time round the problem seems easy to fix, the fact that these sort of
security breaches are able to happen is worrying. Social networking for
businesses and the general public is incredibly important in this day and age, but users must be confident that they can use it without risk. As more and more of
people’s personal information is on the internet more must be done to ensure
that the information of social networkers is kept safe and secure from hackers.”
This evening reports have suggested that
dating site eHarmony might also have been affected by the same hack. United Leeds Endeavours urges users to keep an eye on the news and take any preventative measures
recommended by individual sites.
