LinkedIn has confirmed via its blog that more than 6,5 Million user passwords had been “compromised”. That is a nice way of saying a Russian hacker stole, and then downloaded them.

If you have an account with LinkedIn, now would be a great time to change your password. Claus Villumsen, CTO of internet security company BullGuard says hackers could use the passwords from LinkedIn to potentially log into email accounts which use the same password.

“Your password should always be treated like a toothbrush, never share it with anyone else and change it frequently. That’s a good rule of thumb. The details at risk here in this case are emails, phone numbers and passwords. I’m pretty sure LinkedIn wouldn’t store credit card information. What’s worrying if using the same password you could potentially log in to anything else.”

Here is the official statement from LinkedIn director Vicente Silveria:

“We are continuing to investigate this situation and here is what we are pursuing as far as next steps for the compromised accounts: Members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords will notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid. These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords. There will not be any links in these emails. For security reasons, you should never change your password on any website by following a link in an email. These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords.”

[Source: MSN]