LinkedIn Data Security Breach - Important Information You Should Know
The notice below was issued by LinkedIn about reports of a security breach or hack. LinkedIn issued the security notice to provide important information and facts about reports of the data breach, such as what happened, what information was involved, what LinkedIn is doing, and what users can do to protect themselves.
The LinkedIn Security Notice
Important information about your LinkedIn account
Notice of Data Breach
You may have heard reports recently about a security issue involving LinkedIn. We would like to make sure you have the facts about what happened, what information was involved, and the steps we are taking to help protect you.
What Happened?
On May 17, 2016, we became aware that data stolen from LinkedIn in 2012 was being made available online. This was not a new security breach or hack. We took immediate steps to invalidate the passwords of all LinkedIn accounts that we believed might be at risk. These were accounts created prior to the 2012 breach that had not reset their passwords since that breach.
What Information Was Involved?
Member email addresses, hashed passwords, and LinkedIn member IDs (an internal identifier LinkedIn assigns to each member profile) from 2012.
What We Are Doing
We invalidated passwords of all LinkedIn accounts created prior to the 2012 breach that had not reset their passwords since that breach.in addition, we are using automated tools to attempt to identify and block any suspicious activity that might occur on LinkedIn accounts. We are also actively engaging with law enforcement authorities.
LinkedIn has taken significant steps to strengthen account security since 2012. For example, we now use salted hashes to store passwords and enable additional account security by offering our members the option to use two-step verification.
What You Can Do
We have several dedicated teams working diligently to ensure that the information members entrust to LinkedIn remains secure. While we do all we can, we always suggest that our members visit our Safety Center to learn about enabling two-step verification, and implementing strong passwords in order to keep their accounts as safe as possible. We recommend that you regularly change your LinkedIn password and if you use the same or similar passwords on other online services, we recommend you set new passwords on those accounts as well.
For More Information
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Trust & Safety team at tns-help@linkedin.com.to learn more visit our official blog.
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