How to Check if Your LinkedIn Password was Hacked | News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Want to know if your LinkedIn password was one of the 6.5 million that were hacked on Wednesday? Password management firm LastPress released a secure tool that can help.

But first, if it’s news to you that LinkedIn passwords were compromised, they were. On Wednesday a Russian hacker announced he stole 6,458,020 of them. To prove it, he posted them online, albeit without usernames. LinkedIn confirmed that some passwords had been compromised and said they would let users know if they were one of the unlucky 6.5 million.

According to Mashable, it’s likely the passwords will be used to “help reverse-engineer other cryptography systems.” Tech gurus there also suspect the passwords will be added to dictionary lists that attempt to hack other accounts. Mashable suggests, no matter how strong your password was, it’s wise to change it now.

So how do you check to see if your password was hacked? LastPress has launched a tool that allows you to type in your password and from there it compares it among the 6.5 million that were compromised. But can you trust a site where you’re giving away your private information? LastPress ensures that the tool is safe and that they do not store passwords.

If you don’t want to use your password, but are interested in seeing just how bad some passwords can be, try typing in any random word you think might be used as a password like “password” or “Johnny123″ to test it out.

For more information, visit the LastPress tool.