According to security experts the passwords are circulating in the form of a
cryptographic “hash”, which converts text into a seemingly random string of
numbers and letters using a mathematical formula.
When he posted the passwords online on Tuesday, a hacker with the username "dwdm",
appealed for help from fellow hackers to crack the hashes and access the
original passwords. By Wednesday morning they claimed to have revealed
hundreds of thousands.
Mr Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos,
advised all LinkedIn members
to change their passwords immediately and get out of the habit of using one
password for multiple websites, a practice he called a "recipe for
disaster".
He said that the networking website had questions to answer, especially as the
password hack comes shortly after LinkedIn's recent release of an iPhone app
which also raised security concerns.
