LinkedIn looking into reports 6.5 million passwords have been leaked
It has been reported that 6.5 million LinkedIn encrypted passwords have been leaked.
The ‘hashed’ passwords have appeared on a Russian hacker site, with over 300,000 passwords having already been decrypted.
According to The Next Web, ‘the hashes use SHA-1 encryption, and while it is somewhat secure, it can still be cracked if the user employs a simple dictionary password’.
While no official statement has been released yet, LinkedIn has tweeted ‘Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords. Stay tuned for more.’, perhaps brought on by the name of the social networking site trending on Twitter.
“It would seem sensible to suggest to all LinkedIn users that they change their passwords as soon as possible as a precautionary step,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Of course, make sure that the password you use is unique – in other words, not used on any other websites – and that it is hard to crack. If you were using the same passwords on other websites - make sure to change them too. And never again use the same password on multiple websites.”