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Securing your LinkedIn profile is not just about protecting your job prospects or professional reputation. It’s about safeguarding your identity, personal information, and your workplace.

Why is LinkedIn safety important?

Your LinkedIn profile holds valuable personal data, putting you and your workplace at risk. 

How to protect your LinkedIn profile

LinkedIn's default settings aren't optimized for security, but you can easily fix that. Here's how:

  1. Password: Craft a password of 12+ characters blending letters, numbers, and symbols—a unique combination known only to you and exclusive to your LinkedIn account.
  2. Two-Factor Authentication: This is an extra layer of protection for your account. Even if your password is cracked, a second step is also required.
  3. Connections: Be selective. Be sure you know the person before accepting requests.
  4. Visibility: Limit who can see your connections, posts, and other details in your LinkedIn settings.
  5. Think before you post: Never share personal or sensitive data.

Reactive LinkedIn safety tips

As you post content on LinkedIn, it's important to watch the comments occurring on your feed. Below are some best practices for handling unexpected comments that appear on your LinkedIn. 

Unfavorable comments:

Sometimes people will take to social media and post unfavorable comments on your recent posts (e.g., political, current events, discriminatory). 

In the event this occurs, it’s up to you to decide how you want to handle it. You can leave it alone or you can delete it. If the behavior continues, consider blocking the individual. 

Accepting new connection requests:

Be mindful as you accept connection requests. It is okay to decline connection requests from individuals you don’t know.

As you review new connection requests, here are some additional things to keep in mind if the request is from someone you don’t know. Consider declining if: 

  • The person doesn’t have any followers, no activity and no work experience listed. 
  • The activity on their profile has negative comments targeting individuals or companies. 
  • There is divisive or controversial information in their headline. 

If you accidentally accept a request from someone and they begin posting about issues or complaining on your posts, you can remove the connection or block the person entirely.

  • To remove the connection: Navigate to the Network tab > Click on Connections > Find their name > Click on the three dots next to “Message” and select “Remove Connection” 
  • To block the connection: Navigate to the comment from the person you wish to block > Click on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the comment > Select “Block [name of person]”. You can block people who follow you or post on your wall without being connected to them.

With our world becoming more connected than ever, data protection and security remain a top priority. Learn more about cybersecurity and other social media safety tips by checking out our Cyber Resource Center.