LinkedIn is disabling the passwords of any users that could potentially be affected by a recent security breach, wherein 6.5 million hashed LinkedIn passwords were posted online, the company has announced.
"Our first priority was to lock down and protect the accounts associated with the decoded passwords that we believed were at the greatest risk. We’ve invalidated those passwords and contacted those members with a message that lets them know how to reset their passwords," said LinkedIn director Vicente Silveira in a blog post.
"Going forward, as a precautionary measure, we are disabling the passwords of any other members that we believe could potentially be affected. Those members are also being contacted by LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords," wrote Silveira.
LinkedIn is also working with the law enforcement, which is investigating the matter.
LinkedIn apologized to users after a Russian hacker posted 6,458,020 hashed passwords on a forum. The company promised to add another layer of security by salting as well as hashing its database for account passwords, which makes the encrypted passwords harder to crack.