3 Take-aways from the Recent Linkedin Leak

Anything could happen when it comes to cybersecurity, and it can happen unexpectedly, and without any warning. Take Linkedin for example, 6.5 million passwords were leaked and they are still having problems finding the leak and how it happened. But this leak to Linkedin, is your information getting out to the public, and maybe to the wrong hands. Based on this latest news, there are some takeaways that users should consider when dealing with large social networking sites, with lots of personal information you post up.

1. Anything could happen

With big companies, you never know if they are a target or not, apparently over 500,000 attempts to hack Facebook happen everyday. With that much personal information, where people work, their interests, groups they are in, and other information about demographics. It becomes like a vault in a bank full of money, that robbers (or hackers) want to attack, to get the big prize. So the bigger the company is, the more they are a target for large scale attacks, or in this cause, 6.5 million accounts leaked in one day.

2. Don’t trust spin-offs

There are some programs that are made specifically for crisis’s like this like the Leak.org site, which checks if your account is safe. These are made to capitalize on the large amount of people and the relevancy of the attack. People use these spin-offs to draw traffic, although some can be useful tools, they could also be not as safe and secure as one would think. So be weary when you submit your information to these help sites. Check the website’s blog first for the latest news about what is happening with the story, instead of working with people

3. Watch your third party apps

With social networks being more involve with each other, and other social networks providing their API for other people to use to build more programs, apps, and so on. Your account might be linked to other accounts like Twitter, Facebook, or some other pages that could.

Be sure to keep refreshing your accounts with new passwords, know what sites like Linkedin are connected to (via third party apps), and remember, just because they are a big company, they are a target, which also means, your information can be targeted as well!

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