The LinkedIn website has confirmed that six million of its members’ passwords have been “compromised” and have been leaked onto the internet.
Hackers have posted a file containing the encrypted passwords onto a Russian web forum and then asked the hacking community to help with decrypting the file.
LinkedIn, which has more than 150 million users, claimed that the leaked passwords would no longer be valid and that members would receive an email with instructions on how to reset them. the company said.
However not only have we found that the existing passwords are still accepted, but we have not recieved any warnings either.
Here are the instructions on how to change your LinkedIn password:
- Visit www.linkedin.com, and log-in with your existing details;
- Once logged-in, hover over your name in the top right hand corner of the screen, and select ‘Settings’ from the menu;
- You may be asked to log-in again at this point;
- On the next screen, click the ‘Account’ button which is near the bottom left hand side of the page;
- Under the ‘Email & Password’ heading, you will find a link to Change password;
- You will be asked to confirm your old password and you can then add a new one.
If you use the same password on other websites, be sure to change those too.
According to GCHQ, here are a list of the 25 ‘worst’ internet passwords- if you use ANY of these you should seriously change them NOW:
1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football