Hackers recently posted 6.5 million unique hashed passwords from LinkedIn, with already 200,000 of these passwords cracked. LinkedIn is a global social networking site for professionals—and it’s likely that many of the site’s users use the same password with other sites, including online retail stores, news websites and sites related to their employers.
What does this mean? Each of these other online businesses—those retail stores, news sites and employers—is now at risk. Hackers can potentially use the exposed log in details to access private information stored on these websites, from credit card numbers to emails to private company documents. What if these online businesses could do something to prevent that misuse?
CSID’s VP of sales Marc Ostryniec recently posed a solution to this issue: proactive identity monitoring. Using third party identity monitoring technologies, online businesses can proactively monitor their customers’ and employee’s credentials for compromise on other sites (like LinkedIn) and can then take the proper action to protect their own business from the ramifications of that compromise. For instance, they can instantly notify their customers or employees of the breach and reset passwords as necessary.
And as a consumer, this helps maintain that your online accounts are secure. Was your LinkedIn password exposed through the breach? (You can check through www.leakedin.org, which has been deemed trustworthy by numerous valid sources.) If so, you should reset your password for not just LinkedIn, but for any other account that uses the same login and password combination.
Let us know what you think about the LinkedIn breach and the idea of proactively monitoring identities. Join the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter.
