Your LinkedIn or eHarmony Passwords May Be Hacked!

As if you didn't have enough to worry about, a Russian computer hacker shared a post on Wednesday bragging about his most recent conquest – 8 Million stolen LinkedIn and eHarmony passwords. He even went so far as to post them online (without the usernames) to prove how awesome he is at being a jerk.

LinkedIn has since confirmed this rumor and posted a tweet, saying “Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords. Stay tuned for more.” Brilliant, right? While LinkedIn looks into it, here's what you need to do.

Protect Yourself

The very first thing you need to do is change your password.  You should do this from time to time anyway. You'll also want to see if your password was one of the ones stolen. Our preferred password management firm LastPass released a tool to help LinkedIn and eHarmony users. Simply visit www.lastpass.com/LinkedIn, enter your old password, and click "test my password". They compute the passwords SHA-1 hash and cross-reference it with the list of 6.5 million leaked password hashes.

Practice Safe Passwords

Many people aren't aware of the fact that re-using the same password for multiple accounts isn't seen as "best practice" - but how else do you keep them all memorized? If you are interested in saving your passwords to a safe and secure web portal, SureTech would recommend reading Mashable's "5 Tools for Keeping Track of Your Passwords". We currently use LastPass because we like their random password generator and ability to easily share and remember passwords between accounts; however we've also heard great things about 1Password.

If you don't trust your passwords anywhere other than your noodle, ZDNet and Microsoft offer up some other tips on how to create strong passwords. The only trick here is making sure you remember them!

• Make your passwords eight or more characters;
• Vary punctuation, symbols, letters and numbers;
• Change passwords every three to six months;
• Use different passwords for different accounts.

If you have any questions regarding this or any other technical issue or question, please contact solutions@suretech.com or call our Help Desk at (800) 882-8701 ext 1.

-Your SureTech.com Solutions Team