“Manage security on your LinkedIn Account or else you can get your account Hijacked, not hacked, completely hijacked.” @TLBurriss
I got a phone call this morning from a LinkedIn Member who had his account Permanently Suspended by LinkedIn.
Permanently suspended generally means, your account is gone because LinkedIn feels you violated the LinkedIn Terms of Service.
This problem occurred because this LinkedIn Member’s account was hijacked by a scammer who figured out the email address and password for his LinkedIn Account. The hijacker began viewing LinkedIn Profiles with a 3rd party tool and scraping content from the profiles using 3rd party software that clearly violates the LinkedIn Terms of Service
Unfortunately this issue got worse because the LinkedIn Member made these three mistakes:
#1 – He was not monitoring his Primary Email Account associated with his LinkedIn Account.
If he had been monitoring this email account he would have gotten the message from LinkedIn alerting him to ‘suspicious activity with his LinkedIn Account.’ I urge everyone to use an email address you will monitor daily. The best email address is one that is associated with your purpose of using LinkedIn.
Adjust this under your LinkedIn Settings and Privacy and the Email section.
#2 – He was not paying attention to the Active LinkedIn Sessions associated with his LinkedIn Account.
LinkedIn tracks where you are logged into LinkedIn, when and what device or browser you are using. If he had seen that someone in Denver Colorado was logged in using a Safari Browser, he could have removed that session and ‘kicked’ the hacker off of his account.
Adjust this under your LinkedIn Settings and Privacy and the Sessions section.
#3 – He had not turned on Two Step Verification on his LinkedIn Account.
Two step verification requires a mobile number and would have sent him a text message when he (or a hacker) tried to login on a different device, a different web browser or in a different location. This feature nearly eliminates the potential for his LinkedIn Account to be hijacked. I encourage everyone to use LinkedIn’s Two Step Verification.
Adjust this under your LinkedIn Settings and Privacy in the Two Step Verification section.
You do not want your LinkedIn Account Permanently Suspended because of a hacker and by not #PSA (Paying Serious Attention) to these areas of your LinkedIn Account.
#4 – If you want help using LinkedIn as a Business Tool, maybe we should talk. I love to help business professionals and teams who want more out of their investment into LinkedIn. Here is my calendar – https://calendly.com/tlburriss/15min – let’s talk
Teddy