Well I guess the headline says it all… in 2012 LinkedIn Lost 167 Million Account Credentials in Data Breach.

And whilst it took LinkedIn until 2016 to admit to the complete size of the breach, the problem is big for everyone who re-uses their passwords.

Stuck already? Here’s some pre-reading for you…

Now you should be ready to setup 2FA or two-step verification as LinkedIn calls it.

Here’s a breakdown of the steps required.

1 – go to the LinkedIn two-step verification page https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/two-step-verification

2 – Click “Turn On”

3 – Choose “Authenticator” from the dropdown box

4 – You’ll need to install the Microsoft Authenticator or another one if you choose then follow the on-screen steps on both your computer and your phone

5 – Bang! You’ve done it!

6 – You’ll get a confirmation email like this one

More reading on LinkedIn’s two-step verification is here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/531

Two-Step Verification – Overview

Two-step verification requires a person to use more than one form of verification to access an account, usually by “knowing something” such as a password and by “having something” such as a mobile device. Two-step verification can greatly reduce identity theft and unauthorized access to sensitive information since most accounts become compromised from new or unknown computers or devices.

LinkedIn offers members the ability to turn on two-step verification for their accounts, which requires an account password and a numeric code sent to your phone via SMS whenever we don’t recognize the device you’re attempting 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.