Hackers
are having a field day of late. Call it the Great Social Media Hacking of 2016.
First
in May 2016 they hacked LinkedIn and
leaked some 117 million logins on an online forum in Russia a reported in the
article “Millions of
hacked LinkedIn IDs advertised 'for sale'”, published 18 May 2016, BBC News.
Then
in June 2016, they struck Twitter, using click-bait style malware to steal the
passwords of some 32 million Twitter users as reported in “Passwords for 32M Twitter
accounts may have been hacked and leaked”, published June 8, 2016 by
Catherine Shu, Techcrunch.
I
could go into details about these hacks, as the use of click-bait style malware
is reason why the Jamaican Government websites get hacked so often as pointed
out in my blog
article entitled “Why
Jamaican Government Websites are still hackable despite Cyber Incident Response
Report”.
But
as I’ve pointed out in that article, the best defense is to change your reading
habits as it relates to email; read careful, use the hover method to preview
links before you click on them and don’t open email attachments that look
suspicious.
So
without further ado, here's a quick primer on how to change your LinkedIn and
Twitter Passwords.
How to change your
LinkedIn and Twitter Passwords – Two-Step Verification as Second Wave Coming
To
change your LinkedIn Login credentials, follow the following steps.
First
login to your LinkedIn account.
Then
click on your profile logo in the upper right to reveal a drop down menu. From
that menu select Privacy and Settings.
A
new menu appears. Select the option Change
Passwords.
Once
you select this option, you'll get the chance to enter your old password for
verification and change and confirm a new password.
Once
you've entered a very good password, LinkedIn will advise you if your password
change was a success and if it is a strong password.
At
this point, you can log out and be about your merry way.
At
this point, it bears saying that many online users would benefit from the
application of two-step verification as an added layer of protection as I'd
explained in my blog
article entitled “How
to access your @Twitter Log in History - Stronger Password and Two Step
Verification required”.
This
even after they've been compromised, as hackers cannot beat two-step
verification; true for both Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, whose passwords and
login are worth their weight in Gold bullion. In future articles, on the Geezam and MICO Wars The Teacher Force Awakens,
I'll go into details as to how to change the passwords of your other online
accounts to secure yourself.
Based
on chatter on the Dark Web, I suspect this is the first wave; the first woe is
passed and the second half of this Great Social Media Hacking of 2016 is yet to
be played out.
No comments:
Post a Comment