Confirmed: LinkedIn Networking Site Hacked

DETROIT (WWJ) - The business networking web site LinkedIn is confirming reports that some of its users' passwords have been stolen and leaked on the Internet.

The company said in a blog post on Wednesday that some of the more than 6 million passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts. It did not sayexactly how many.

WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with CBS Technology Expert Larry Magid.

"Unfortunately, this isn't a terribly uncommon situation, and it's one of the vulnerabilities we face in everyday life," said Magid. "We go about our life and we put our security software on our computer and we're careful with our passwords and we do all the right things.

"But if there's a company we do business with, whether it's Linked-In or Sony or even the government, gets hacked, or there's a date breach, then we're all affected," he said.

So, what should you do?

"I think as a precaution, if you're a Linked-In member, you should change your password. And if you use the same password on another sites, which is not a good idea -- but if you did, many people do -- you should change it on those sites as well," Magid said.

"Because if somebody gets your password on Linked-In, and they know your user name, let's say on Facebook, they can use that same password and break into your Facebook account, for example," he said.

Stay with WWJ Newsradio 950 and CBSDetroit.com for the latest.