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RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — In what appears to be a global hacking campaign, LinkedIn accounts are being taken over, leaving their owners with no way to access them.
The complaints began hitting social media within hours.
“What they’ve noticed is that when they try to sign back in using their regular password, it doesn’t work because the person who got their credentials changed the email address, changed the password,” said Cybersecurity Researcher Jeremy Fuchs at Check Point Software.
Reversing the hijacking is difficult.
Some LinkedIn users discovered it takes days or even weeks to recover their accounts and when they do get back in, many complain they’ve lost a lot of what was stored there.
CBS 17 Consumer Investigator Steve Sbraccia wanted to know what are the bad guys doing with hijacked LinkedIn accounts.
“There’s going to be many things,” said Fuchs. “The password we use for LinkedIn may be the same password we used for 15 other things, so, when they have your password to LinkedIn, they could be logging into your bank account or your email or anything else that might have personal information.”
Fuchs said another worry about hijacked LinkedIn accounts revolves around impersonation.
As “you” they can send friends and colleagues messages under your LinkedIn account asking for personal or sensitive information.
“The end goal is to either get credentials to an account, to get information, or to get some financial gain,’’ said Fuchs.
LinkedIn offers a way to report a compromised account but that’s a slow process.
“It can be a challenge to take your account back,” said Fuchs. “You have to prove you are you and with good reason, you want to make sure that you’re giving an account back to the right person.“
If you haven’t been hacked — be proactive.
Change your password now and don’t use it for other accounts.
“If your password on LinkedIn is the same password used for your bank account or your credit cards or your mortgage, it’s best to just change your passwords right away,” said Fuchs.
Experts recommend using a password manager to store all those different passwords.
Click here to find out more about the top password managers by price, device and other categories so you can make an informed decision.
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