Security is high on most people’s priority lists nowadays and there are a number of security measures available on LinkedIn to stop people breaking into your account – and let’s face it, we want to avoid that at all costs.
The two step verification option is an important element that LinkedIn introduced a while ago but it is there to supplement some of the other security elements which already exist on the platform, so it seems worth spending a couple of moments on them first.
Be password savvy
The password is an obvious one and many of us are guilty of a few cardinal sins when it comes to passwords, either on LinkedIn or elsewhere.
Personally, I still quite like the ‘underwear ‘ analogy when it comes to dealing with and managing your LinkedIn password, that to say treat it like your underwear and
1. Change them regularly
2. Don’t leave them laying around or your desk
3. Don’t share them with friends or loan them to anybody
4. Don’t make it easy for people to guess what they are
Changing your password can be done from your Settings page at:
https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/change-password
and LinkedIn even takes please in reminding you how long your current password has been in use for.
Close your Sessions – don’t be in 10 places at once
We do have a tendency to log into LinkedIn on multiple devices and from multiple locations during the course of a week. Smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops all potentially have versions of LinkedIn open which can be a risk – this is particularly so for those of us on the move and so using coffee house wifi for example.
As an additional security element, LinkedIn allows us to check where we are currently logged and whether we appear in multiple places where we have then left those sessions open.
You can do just that at:
https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/sessions
If you find that you have multiple session open you also have the chance to close them from one easy to find location as above.
Two Step Verification
In addition, LinkedIn offers another great little security feature which is called two step verification.
This is very much a ‘does what it says on the tin’ feature and it uses the mobile number that you have submitted to create a second stage in logging you into your account.
Adding this extra layer can greatly reduce the possiility of identity theft and third partis gaining unauthorised access to your information since information tends to indicate that most accounts become compromised from new or unknown computers or devices.
On LinkedIn, the ability to turn on two-step verification is an ideal extra element – it requires an account password and a numeric code sent to your phone via SMS whenever the system doesn’t recognise the device that you are trying to sign in from. In other words, any malicious attempts to access your account will require your password as well as access to your mobile phone.
You can set this up at:
https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/two-step-verification
Now, there are a couple of initial elements to consider in so far as it will sign you out of wherever you are logged in and will also rescind access to any services that you may have linked up to your LInkedIn account so that is something to bear in mind.
