Why does linkedin ask for my email password

Then I notice it is prompting with the email address I used to sign up with LinkedIn, and my fingers can even start to type the password for that password for my totally separate email account. Then I stare harder at the screen and start to get mad. This is nearly as bad as phishing and is an insidious and rude practice which I think should be stopped. If they know my email address, various folks at LinkedIn can do anything with it they want, despite the policies which I presume they have to curb abuse.

There are of course many terrible security vulnerabilities they open up via this practice, beyond the anger they arouse in the many users who complain about this on their site and the many spammed contacts of those users. Is there a setting on the site to turn off these requests, or a means of fooling LinkedIn into stopping or reducing them or reporting them to someone who can do something about it?

For example, perhaps providing passwords for dummy accounts, or accounts that connect with the better business bureau or some other watchdog group or folks they don't want on the site? I believe this goes away if you are a premium user. Free users agree to the Terms of Service that allows them to do trickery like this. It is annoying, but remember that you are using a free service and you have to deal with annoyances like this. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top.

Follow this link to verify your identity. You will have to verify your identity to regain access to your account. It just takes a little time and effort. Stefanie Marrone advises law firms of all sizes, professional service firms, B2B companies, professional associations and individuals on the full range of marketing and business development consulting services designed to enhance revenue, retain current clients and achieve greater brand recognition. Over her nearly year legal marketing career, she has worked at and with a broad range of big law, mid-size and small firms, which has given her a valuable perspective of the legal industry.

See more ». This website uses cookies to improve user experience, track anonymous site usage, store authorization tokens and permit sharing on social media networks. By continuing to browse this website you accept the use of cookies. Click here to read more about how we use cookies. Stefanie Marrone. Edit: I didn't give them any of my email info, so hopefully this didn't happen to any of my contacts.

Numenorean Diamond Member. Oct 26, 4, 1 0. Numenorean said:. That doesn't make any sense at all. Blackjack said:. I think most people have a master password for both? Oh, okay. Thanks for letting me know.

JimmiG Platinum Member. Feb 24, 2, That would be a stupid thing to do. JimmiG said:. Stupid, but convenient. Most probably have one or two passwords that they use for everything. Last edited: Jul 8, And this new number is all over the news because that database is now sold on the dark net.

I t is not unusual for such stolen material to turn up for sale long after the initial data breach. LinkedIn is invalidating the compromised passwords and currently sending out emails to users, urging them to change their passwords in response to this report though the email LinkedIn is sending is vague about the actual nature of the threat.

And of course the bad guys have jumped on this too. It's prime time for them to exploit user fear and confusion and send out their own fake versions of that email, and other LinkedIn-themed phishing attacks. That means you need to inoculate your users before they fall for these new scams.

I suggest you send employees the following. The number of compromised records is very close to the number of active LinkedIn users in , meaning the breach likely affected all users at the time.

They should have forced every user to change their passwords back then, instead this sensitive data has been floating around for the last 4 years. Users that haven't changed their password in that time frame are unsurprisingly the same type of user that has the same password for multipla accounts aka a hacker's paradise.

Yet another reason why password security is so vital in protecting our identities online.