Why you should change your LinkedIn password

Several million LinkedInpasswords have been stolen and posted online. The fact that they are “encrypted” does not mean they are safe.

Image via CrunchBase

The encryption – hashing – means that a lone password cracker trying to “brute force” the passwords would probably take a very long time to get through any significant number.

But the point is that they don’t have to do that. Instead they can look up the hashed password in a “rainbow table” of pre-cracked passwords and look it up that way.

Not everybody’s password will be one that has been “pre-cracked” and stuck in a rainbow table, but how confident are you that’s yours isn’t?

So, you have to change the password for LinkedIn and change that password anywhere else you use it – because the password will be associated with your email address and crackers are not likely to stop just because they locked them out of LinkedIn.

It’s a pain but surely not as big a pain as having your identity stolen.

Related articles

• “If it turns out that #LinkedIn passwords have leaked…” (http://goo.gl/N9lhn at Computerworld) (dropsafe.crypticide.com)
• LinkedIn Slips in an Upgrade Overnight (integratedalliances.com)
• The LinkedIn Profile [Infographic] (socialtimes.com)