I’m careful about where and I how use social media, so I thought.
Yet last Wednesday (June 1), someone I knew and respected, sent me a LinkedIn message with a link to access a joint project with my password. (My mistake.)
The hacker posed as a common contact to me, then changed my primary email address and set a new password. I no longer had any control over my profile page and didn’t even have access to the page.
The hacker started sending messages to my clients, partners and people that I was connected with, via LinkedIn messages with my photo and a link.
It took several hours, working with the LinkedIn Recovery Team, to get my LinkedIn profile page back into my hands, with everything secured again.
The LinkedIn Team did an exceptional job, working with expertise and speed to return my page back to me – thanks LinkedIn!
Lessons Learned
Never click on links that take you outside of the LinkedIn community. If you get message from a familiar contact who suggests you click on a link, call them to verify who they are and that they sent you a link.
(Don’t message them, several of my contacts were messaging with the hacker last week, thinking it was me.)
If you think your site or security has been compromised, change your password immediately and set up the two-step verification process that LinkedIn offers.
My sincere apologies for anyone that was inconvenienced by my actions last week – lesson learned.
What personal experiences have you had with hackers and what lessons learned could you share that would help others?
Image by Shutterstock #646519603