A new risk: password security

The following was shared with me by my wife; this was passed along to her by an IT professional. I thought it worth sharing with you.

As you may or may not have heard, if you have a LinkedIn or eHarmony account, significant numbers of passwords were not only stolen, but were leaked out to the internet. The problem however, does not end there. These passwords were then posted on the internet along with identifying information.

The significance of this goes far beyond these two sites. Most people use the same password across many sites. It turns out that hackers are actively exploiting this to commit crimes.

If you have a LinkedIn or eHarmony account:

1. Reset your passwords to a completely different one immediately

2. If you use the same password on any other system (like a banking site, your email, or our computers, etc.), please change that password immediately

3. Be very careful if you receive emails related to changing your password that appear to be from these sites or other phishing emails. These email too can actually be more attacks. If you receive a password change notification in your email, do not click on the link, instead, go directly to the site yourself by typing in the name and change your password there.