LinkedIn Wants you to Change your Password

On the heels of the announcement today that the LinkedIn database has been hacked and passwords leaked, let me give you a tip on using password generators.

Nothing may come out of this recent hacking, but there’s still no harm in changing your password. Not surprisingly, most of the passwords that LinkedIn viewed on their database had the word “LinkedIn” in it …

Some of you may be using your browser’s password storage system. I advise against this as it is not secure. Three years ago, my Twitter account was hacked and someone was posting all kinds of tweets on my behalf. I already had a strong password, but I did not change it at that time. Instead, I disabled the password from Firefox. As soon as I did that, the posted messages stopped.

Some people prefer using a password they can remember. But what I do instead is use a password manager. Different password managers are out there, including 1Password and LastPass. Some are free while others are paid. Even though a password manager stores my passwords, I still keep a copy of my passwords in a separate place!

Today we’ll look at LastPass.

LastPass is a password manager, form filler, and password management system. It is very secure, and offers a free and a premium version for $1 a month for 12 months. It also generates passwords for you without you having to type anything in manually. It puts an icon on top of your browser, one showing when you are logged in, and another when you are logged out. You can also set it to automatically log out after X amount of seconds or minutes or hours, or whenever you close your browser. It also stores your passwords separate and apart from the browser and is highly encrypted.
 

Changing your LinkedIn Password

• Go to LinkedIn.com and sign in
• In the top right-hand corner you’ll see your name. Click on it and scroll down to Settings
• In the grey section under your picture or logo you will see Password Change
• You may choose a strong password from a tool such as Strong Password Generator.

Normally, the more characters, the stronger the password will be.
 

Changing your LinkedIn Password using LastPass

After you download and log in to LastPass, you have two options.

First option: You can go to LinkedIn.com and manually type in your username and your new password. When you click Sign In, Lastpass generates a yellow bar at the top prompting you to save the site. Your password is now saved. The next time you go to LinkedIn.com, LastPass automatically fills in the fields for you. You just need to click Sign In.

Second option: Use this method if you are concerned about hackers recording your key strokes. To have it generate a password for you and fill in the field of the LinkedIn site, type in your username at the Sign In page. Put your cursor in the Password field. In LastPass, go to Tools > Generate Secure Password.

You will see the radio button Show Advanced Options. Check that, and you will have the option of choosing a password length. It will then generate a password based on your choices. Click Generate to see the new password, then Copy. The Password field on LinkedIn will automatically populate. Your password is now saved.

If this is a password change, a yellow bar will appear at the top, asking you to confirm that this is a password change. In the drop down field, select the site and click Save.

LastPass has provided a tool for you to find out if your password was one of those compromised. Visit this link

As always, if you have any questions or need a walk-through of LastPass, do give me a shout!

Visit LastPass.

Category: Social Media