Professional social network LinkedIn is investigating reports that user passwords have been compromised.
Reports first surfaced Tuesday morning that a Russian blog had posted passwords of approximately 6.5 million users. Later in the morning on Twitter the LinkedIn account tweeted that the company was looking into the situation.
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A blog post from security firm Sophos reports that researchers there found a file that contains some passwords from LinkedIn, but not associated email addresses. Nonetheless, the firm recommends users to change their LinkedIn passwords for protection. "A file containing 6,458,020 SHA-1 unsalted password hashes has been posted on the internet, and hackers are working together to crack them," the site says.
LinkedIn says to "stay tuned" for more information.
The report follows news earlier this week that a LinkedIn calendar application has been copying information from iOS and Android devices without user knowledge.
Network World staff writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing and social collaboration. He can be reached at BButler@nww.com and found on Twitter at @BButlerNWW.
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