Fittingly, just after this website covered a recent study concerning the overall weakness of online passwords, the news broke that millions of social networking passwords have been compromised by hackers. The security breach could expose Apple, Samsung and Toshiba laptops across the country to a whole new wave of cyberattacks.
Last week, two lists containing 8 million encrypted passwords were posted on the hacker website InsidePro, according to reports. The first list, which contained over 6 million codes, was quickly connected to the professional networking site{,} LinkedIn{,} by analysts. On June 6, LinkedIn acknowledged in a blog post that some of the passwords corresponded with their accounts.
That same day, online dating site eHarmony also posted a statement confirming that passwords from the second, smaller list were linked to their accounts.
Both websites are investigating the matter and have reset the passwords of the affected accounts. They recommend that users create more difficult passwords, with numbers and varying capital and lower-case letters.
Technology publication Ars Technica reports that, although no username information was posted alongside the encrypted passwords, the hackers who posted the list no doubt had that information. In addition, the source warns that these probably aren't the only passwords that the hackers have.
This incident has "provide[d] a glimpse into the sport of collective password cracking, a forum where people gather to pool their expertise and sometimes vast amounts of computing resources," says the source. The hackers most likely posted the passwords they were struggling to crack, meaning they may have a stockpile of "easier ones" they'd already figured out.
To combat these forums, make sure you vary your online passwords. That way, hackers won't have a skeleton key to access all of your accounts if they happen to crack one code.
For more advice on measures you can take to boost the security on your new Sony Vaio or Apple Macbook Air, contact a retailer at PortableOne.