LinkedIn passwords revisited

LinkedIn Password breach
Last week 117 million accounts and passwords for LinkedIn accounts became available for sale on the Internet. LinkedIn did confirm that this list came from a data breach in 2012.  This represents about one quarter of the accounts at LinkedIn. If you receive a message from LinkedIn to reset your password you need to refresh this information.  A message from LinkedIn also means your password is at least 4 years old. It also means your encrypted password can be hacked. LinkedIn did not change it’s password policy until after the data breach in 2012.

Your LinkedIn email address may also get a message from LeakedSource that solicits you to join there service because they have a copy of the database information. At their blog post is a list of the top 50 passwords used on LinkedIn from this list of 117 million accounts.  You can check to see if you use one of the easiest passwords to compromise on LinkedIn.

We all have scores of passwords that give us access to everything from games to our professional profile. Using a password manager can reduce the complexity of managing this mess. It is time to move your passwords from that list in the book, your excel spreadsheet, word document or your contact list on your phone. If you have employees a policy and procedure should be in place to manage all of the information necessary to run your business.

If you use Office 365 you can manage passwords to Internet sites.  After you log into Office 365 you can unlock access to LinkedIn, Dropbox, Box and thousands of other sites. Multi-factor authentication is available on Office 365 to make sure only the account holder can access your online accounts.  You do not have to authenticate each time you access the account you can authorize a device to access Office 365 for 2 weeks before you are prompted to check a text message or authentication app on your phone.

LastPass is an app that works with your computer, tablet or phone to save passwords.  The consumer version is free to use on your computer.   Twelve dollars per year gets you access from your phone or tablet.   A corporate version is available for $24 per year.  LastPass has features that can change passwords automatically and save them to your password vault. Forms can be filed with two clicks of your mouse saving time online typing static information.

If you want help to manage your passwords just email us.