June 7, 2012

LinkedIn User Passwords Reportedly Stolen By Hackers: Social Network Battling Security Crisis as It Is Forced to Deactivate Compromised Passwords — Expert Warns Of Further Scamming, Advises Users to Change Passwords Immediately

Facebook isn't the only social network struggling right now — LinkedIn said this week that some of its users' passwords have been stolen and leaked onto the Internet. The company did not say how many of the more than six million passwords that were distributed online corresponded to LinkedIn accounts, and in fact said it was continuing to investigate (update: LinkedIn has confirmed that a list of stolen passwords was compromised). Graham Cluley, a consultant with U.K. Web security company Sophos, recommended that LinkedIn users change their passwords immediately. LinkedIn is an especially sensitive information harvester — it has a lot of info on its more than 160 million members, including potentially confidential information related to jobs being sought. Companies, recruiting services and others have accounts alongside individuals who post resumes and other professional information. There's added concern that many people use the same password on multiple websites, so whoever stole the data could use the information to access Gmail, Amazon, PayPal and other accounts, Cluley said, USA Today reports. Cluley said hackers are working together to break the encryption on the passwords. "All that's been released so far is a list of passwords and we don't know if the people who released that list also have the related email addresses," he said. "But we have to assume they do. And with that combination, they can begin to commit crimes." At press time, it wasn't known who was behind such an attack. A LinkedIn blog post had few details about what happened. It said compromised passwords have been deactivated, and members with affected accounts will be sent emails with further instructions. Cluley warned that LinkedIn users should be careful about malicious email generated around the incident. The fear is that people, after hearing about the incident, would be tricked into clicking on links in those emails. Instead of getting to the real LinkedIn site to change a password, it would go to a scammer, who can then collect the information and use it for criminal activities. LinkedIn said its emails will not include any links, the USA Today article reports.

Before confirming the breach, LinkedIn issued security tips as a precautionary measure. The company said users should change passwords at least every few months and avoid using the same ones on multiple sites. LinkedIn also had suggestions for making passwords stronger, including avoiding passwords that match words in a dictionary. One way is to think of a meaningful phrase or song and create a password using the first letter of each word, USA Today reports.

While the passwords appear to be encrypted, security researcher Marcus Carey warned that users should not take solace from such security measures. "If a website has been breached, it doesn't matter what encryption they're using because the attacker at that point controls a lot of the authentication," said Carey, who works at security-risk assessment firm Rapid7. "It's 'game over' once the site is compromised," he warned, reports AP writer Cassandra Vinograd for the USA Today story.