The Tale of the Hacked Profile

EEEK!!!!

Imagine the Horror of waking up and discovering your LinkedIn Profile had been hacked!

I wish this wasn’t true, but it is!

A hacker got into a friend’s account and somehow, someway, managed to change her profile photo

And….

Deleted all of her profile information!?

Think about it, all of her experiences, descriptions, skills, recommendations, endorsements, EVERYTHING! ?GONE!

Good news, she was able to still get into her account. She changed her password right and way.

Bad news, well, you can imagine, so much is missing.? My heart hurts for her, that she will have to recreate all of it.

Don’t let this happen to you!

REVIEW YOUR SECURITY SETTINGS.

Here are some ways you can protect yourself.? All of these options are in Privacy & Settings – Sign In & Security area.

?? Change your password often, and don’t use the same password in multiple places.

?? Add your phone number to your account.

?? See where you’re signed in.? ?Here you’ll get a list of IP addresses that your account has signed into recently and not signed out of. This is especially important if you ever access your LinkedIn account when you are traveling or working away from your office, especially using public WIFI.

??? Set up two-step verification!? VERY IMPORTANT!!!!

If you should ever need to recreate the information on your account, here are a couple of things you can do now that will decrease the need for you to start from scratch.

???? Get a Copy of Your Data

Consider this your LinkedIn account back-up that you can get directly from LinkedIn. They’ll send a .zip file of your profile sections, connections, posts, articles, endorsements, recommendations, education, organizations and so much more. ?

I recommend you do this every quarter and save the file to your computer.

HOW to get a copy of your data:

·??????? Click on the Me icon (your profile photo in upper right corner of the screen)

·??????? Go to Settings & Privacy.

·??????? Select data privacy

·??????? Select “Get a copy of your data” that’s listed under How LinkedIn Uses your Data

·??????? Click the arrow

·??????? Select option 1 – Download larger data archive

·??????? Click Request Archive?

?

??? Get a PDF of your Profile

While it isn’t everything on your profile, it’s the main sections.

·??????? Go to View Profile

·??????? Select Resources

·??????? Select Save as .pdf?

Obviously, these are not going to keep hackers from trying to get to you. ?Maybe they’ll slow them down a bit?

And if you need to recreate your account for any reason, having these “backups” will surely help.?

These backups have a lot of great information that you can use, even if you don’t have a crisis like a hacked account. Check out my recent newsletter for ideas.?

#linkedinsecurity #linkedintips

** As long as we’re talking about profiles, I’m have only two more sessions of LinkedIn Profile Makeover: A Hands-On, Do-With-Sue Workshop where we will work together on your profile in small group setting. Sessions are November 7 and December 5.? Register at: https://events.sue-gresham.com/profilemo

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