LinkedIn confirms passwords compromised in security breach - New York News | NYC Breaking News

LinkedIn confirms passwords compromised in security breach

Social network LinkedIn has suffered a security breach resulting in the loss of potentially millions of encrypted passwords that could allow criminals to break into subscribers' accounts.

The hacked passwords were first posted to a Russian hackers forum, Norway-based tech blog Dagens IT reported.

LinkedIn confirmed the security breach had occurred, in a post on its blog.

"We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts," the blog post said. "We are continuing to investigate this situation.... We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our members. We take the security of our members very seriously."

The hacked passwords would represent about four percent of LinkedIn's 150 million users, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing security firms.

Other hackers have already managed to de-encrypt and post passwords online, said Graham Cluley, a security consultant at Sophos. Cluley said there is so far no evidence the passwords have been linked to user email addresses.

Marcus Carey, a researcher at security research firm Rapid7, says users should protect themselves by changing their LinkedIn and email passwords, but doing that once might not be enough.

"The vulnerability hasn't yet been worked out, so the attackers may still be in the system and you may need to change your password again, once the flaw is worked out," Carey said. "This may be a two time thing."

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