LinkedIn Data Breach

If you have an account on LinkedIn, your email and password may be one of the 117 million stolen in a massive 2012 data breach the company finally admitted to earlier this week. A list of all 117 million emails and passwords are reported to be available for sale on the dark web. LinkedIn claims they were only made aware that the list was for sale. As strong as the temptation may be to point fingers, what matters most right now is making sure you’re protected.

What This Means For You

Whoever gets their hands on that list is, no doubt, gearing up to wreak havoc on the masses. Many of us are guilty of using one password for multiple websites. Your LinkedIn password might pave the way for accessing your email inbox, your social media profiles, and even your bank account! Even if you use a different password for everything, your data/accounts may still be vulnerable. Failing to take action now may put your identity, online presence, and financial information at extreme risk!

 

What Happens Now?

First things first: change your passwords! Not just on LinkedIn, either. It’s worth taking the extra time to go through and change all your passwords in case multiple accounts have been breached already. There are a few basic rules in choosing and protecting your passwords:

• Don’t use numbers with personal significance (birthdays, anniversaries, etc).
• Don’t use full words (if you do, use a full phrase).
• Use both uppercase and lowercase letters.
• Use special characters (@, !, &, etc).
• Never use the same password twice.
• Never physically write your passwords down.
• If they’re not memorized, make sure your passwords are stored in a high-security location online.

If you commit to choosing and protecting a strong password and change your passwords regularly, you can greatly reduce the risk of someone stealing your valuable information.

How Realnets Can Help?

Realnets offers endpoint security solutions, giving our clients access to threat protection, antivirus, and policy enforcement services. We also offer a unified threat management solution which provides all-in-one protection for your network, email, server, and web! We also provide security log auditing and network monitoring. Contact Realnets today for security solutions you can trust!