Hack of LinkedIn shows need for multiple passwords  June 17,
2012   One of the way social networks grow – their ace in the
hole – is by playing on human nature. When someone you don’t
know sends you a message asking to be your “friend,” do you
really want to turn him down? If a woman you know on an online
forum thinks you should connect to her on Google+, wouldn’t a
“no” be an insult? People want to get along, so they click and
their networks grow and the social networking companies prosper.
At least, they do until someone delivers a wake-up call, as
happened just the other day with the business network LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is all about building a network of trusted connections,
each given authority by the approval of someone else. But about
two weeks ago Russian hackers released a list of 6.5 million
passwords that had been lifted off LinkedIn as well as the
dating site eHarmony. It turns out that LinkedIn was using
outmoded cryptographic methods that failed to secure this
sensitive data and, while user names