The new security measure makes it more complicated for hackers to get into your account because it requires access to your password and mobile phone.
(Credit: LinkedIn)
Following Twitter's lead, LinkedIn introduced two-step verification as an optional security feature members can use to protect their accounts.
LinkedIn's new security measure emulates the two-step verification process of other sites and requires members to input a code, sent via SMS, when logging in from an unrecognized device for the first time.
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"Most Internet accounts that become compromised are illegitimately accessed from a new or unknown computer," LinkedIn director Vicente Silveira wrote on the company blog. "When enabled, two-step verification makes it more difficult for unauthorized users to access your account, requiring them to have both your password and access to your mobile phone."
The update follows a similar addition from Twitter, where high-profile members are often the frequent targets of hacking exploits. But LinkedIn has been far from a safe haven. Last year, the company was publicly embarrassed when it fell victim to hackers who managed to get access to millions of passwords that were then posted online.
Enabling two-step authentication should make it more difficult for hackers to access your LinkedIn account, but it's not an impenetrable system, as CNET senior reporter Seth Rosenblatt explains in his FAQ on the log-in system.
