How to hack a former employee's LinkedIn account

This is a surprisingly easy way that employers can hack into a former employee's LinkedIn account. They can change anything they want, including password and the former employee wouldn't know until it is to late. This was a discovery I made today when...

I received a phone call from one of my former colleagues. She was having trouble changing information on the company's LinkedIn page. Seeing as how I used to be one of the admins, she tried to login with my company e-mail. At one point  I had added my company e-mail as a contact. I no longer use that e-mail and thought the account was deactivated. However, like with most companies, the mail account can be remade or retrieved.

Now it is important to note that I originally registered with a different e-mail to linkedIn and had a different primary e-mail address than my company e-mail. What I did not know, was that if you have an e-mail address associated to your profile account, you can login using that e-mail as a username.

So she had my username. Then the password was all that was needed. For this a simple password recovery sent to the company e-mail was all that was needed to reset the password and voila, she was in my account. But unfortunately I was no longer admin of the page, so she had to start all over. She was nice enough to call me and tell me what my password had been reset too. To be honest I was really amazed that she was able to do this so easily as she is not someone who I would call technical.

So how to you keep your old employer from taking your account? Make sure to remove any past e-mails from your account. This took a little searching to try and find where it was.

How to keep linkedin safe from former colleagues

1. Hover on your name in the top right corner, and select settings from the drop-down menu.

2. Under your profile picture click on Primary E-mail address CHANGE/ADD

3. Now remove any former e-mail addresses. Try to keep it to just 2 e-mails max.

That's it, your a bit safer now. I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did please share it with friends or colleagues who would find it useful.

VJ with Guitar Hero

I'm always looking for ways to help people learn how to edit better. This is a hack that allows you to control VJ software [arkaos] by using a Wii Guitar. To see more on the technique, check this blog post. Otherwise, just watch the video below.

Gabe Mac for Hire

After 3 years it is time for me to take a different path from Indie. It has not been an easy decision for me to leave. I really love my co-workers who are an amazing group of people. I will also miss the opportunities that Indie has given me in pushing the boundaries of advertising. When I first came to Indie I had no idea what really went on in an Ad Agency. It was soon apparent that I was not a usual fit for an agency...

I love hats. Indie allowed me to wear a bunch with a variety of roles under the title Head of Innovation. I've enjoyed designing games, directing and editing films, being the english voice on Indie's films, developing digital strategies, programming applications, concepting campaigns, designing webpages, new biz development, producing presentations and every now and again cooking a large feast for the team.

In my time at Indie I have learned a lot about marketing and advertising from the Indie team. I'm very grateful to have had this chance to learn from incredibly talented and experienced advertising legends.

I see lots of changes happening in advertising. With new technologies emerging, there is an enormous challenge for agencies to adapt slow reacting clients to these changes. Ultimately, I don't believe that the traditional ad agency will thrive. With the speed at which technology is changing the game, those agencies which do not adapt to working like a technology start-up will be left behind. This is why I have decided to become a freelance consultant.

For professional reasons I want to be a bee flying onto a variety of flowers to cross-pollinate ideas. For that I need to open myself up to working on projects with a variety of different companies and technologies. I have first hand experience with using game design in marketing. I would love to help new markets with these insights.

Could I help you? Let me know!

Send me a quick email

Gabe Mac

Burn Cycle - My Ride through Burning Man 2011

I hope you enjoy this cycle through the Playa at Burning Man 2011. It was the most unforgettable journey of my life. This video only captures a small segment of what I saw an experienced. Thanks to Jeffrey and John for the best bike on the playa. Thanks Rupert for the photographs. Thanks to all the burners.

UPDATE: Since the publishing of this video, it has been video at some bike festivals down under. Fun to think people had to cycle to keep the projector running.

Like on Facebook!

-ASKFRASCO and @MARLOOZ talk about "Like me on Facebook" and other geek girl chatter. by www.gabemac.com