LinkedIn possible Password Leak

Various websites and news outlets are reporting a potential leak of LinkedIn passwords.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&tl=en&u=http://www.dag...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/65-million-linkedin-passwords...

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/06/06/millions-of-linkedin-password...

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2012/06/06/bad-day-for-linkedin-6-5-mi...

Recommendations:

1) Change your LinkedIn password to a UNIQUE password that you will NEVER EVER USE AGAIN. (This is assuming that the attackers will be able to see this password until LinkedIn confirm they've closed whatever security issue - if it exists).
2) Change your password on any other sites where you use the SAME email address and password combination.
3) Stop using the same email and password combination!

Yes, 3 is seemingly tricky. But there are ways of making unique passwords easier. For e.g. insert the service name in the middle of your password. If you always use mydogsname123 as your password, change it to mydogsnamelinkedin123.

Yes it's longer, yes it's one more thing to think about, but it's still better than password123...

If you use gmail/google mail you can generate unique email addresses:

So if your email address is mygmailaddress@gmail.com add a +sitename for a unique address:

mygmailaddress+unique@gmail.com

Other providers may offer a similar service. If you have your own catchall email address on your domain name you can do similar.

You can also use software to store your passwords but in my experience the damn software is never to hand when you need it :-)

HTH, HAND &c

Also - have a look at:

http://xkcd.com/936/

for a better and clearer explanation that I could ever manage!