"Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords," the business networking website LinkedIn confirms, after word of a Russian hacker's claim to have stolen nearly 6.5 million users' passwords.
![](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5c4c875/2147483647/strip/true/crop/250x62+0+0/resize/880x218!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2012%2F06%2F06%2Flinkedin_custom-beb8ff60008bbb8d47d58e711e27972115429b8a.jpg)
The Verge, a tech-focused publication that was among the first to report the news, says "there is a possibility that this could be a hoax, but several people have said on Twitter that they found their real LinkedIn passwords as hashes on the list."
The standard advice applies: change your password.
Update at 3:48 p.m. ET. LinkedIn Confirms:
LinkedIn now confirms that "some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts."
In a statement, the company said those passwords that had been compromised have been disabled.
"These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords," Vicente Silveira said in the statement.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.