How to Set Up Multi-factor Authentication for your LinkedIn account.

Want to secure your LinkedIn account? Adding another verification step can have a great impact on preventing access from any bad actors. Use this guide to enable this for your LinkedIn account.

November 24, 2020
Valiant Technology
4 min

Many people focus all their security efforts on their big logins like financial and email accounts, and then overlook other vectors such as social media accounts. Personal breaches can lead to professional ones, and LinkedIn merges the two.

One quick way to exponentially increase security on your LinkedIn account is to add multi-factor authentication. We will go through this process step by step in this article.

Prerequisite: Choose and download an authentication app

For your additional login security factor, we recommend using an authentication app over SMS text messages. Both increase security, but authentication apps are more difficult to spoof or find a work around for if your accounts are being targeted. Here are a few we recommend:

Just follow the download and installation instructions provided at those links, and you’ll be ready to set up MFA on many of your accounts. You can also use a different app if your business recommends or requires it.

Logging into LinkedIn

This may seem like an obvious first step, but it’s a good time to think about your already set up login process. How strong is your password? Are you using a unique password, or is it shared among multiple accounts? Are your security questions easy to guess or easy to find on your social media accounts. Take a few moments to think about your login, and then once you are ready it’s time to set up MFA.

Log in with your user name and password. You will need to know your password to proceed so click forgot password if you don’t have it saved or memorized.

Finding LinkedIn MFA in log in options

At the top bar of the page towards the right should be a small icon of your LinkedIn profile picture. Click that to manage your account. Then click “settings & privacy”.

To access your profile, account options, or manage your activity, click on yourself.

The settings and privacy page is a good place to review more security settings beyond your log in options. For now, go to the “Sign in & security” section.

Sign in & Security is near the top of your menu options.

Scroll down to find and select “Two-step verification”. This will open a descriptor of what this verification entails including that this will log you out of LinkedIn on your other devices. Click “turn on”.

There are a few step after tapping “turn on”.

Setting up Two-factor authentication through an app

You will want your smart phone with the authenticator app ready for these next steps. Use the default option in the drop down for authenticator app, and then press the continue button. You will be asked to enter your password to verify your identity.

If you have a password manager storing your passwords, it should be able to take care of entering this for you.

Linked in will provide the next steps which start with opening your authenticator app and tapping to add account. On some apps it is just a plus sign in the top of the screen while other will have a button that says “add account”.

The secret key is very long so if you can use the barcode scanner on your authenticator app, we highly recommend that method.

Then use your phone to scan the QR code on the screen as if you are taking a picture of it. No need to press any “shutter” button. It will recognize the code and produce a rotating passcode for this account.

This example uses Google authenticator for multiple apps. It will say LinkedIn below the number so you know which account corresponds to which code

Enter that 6 digit verification code in the space provided and click continue.

Then you are all set! Your LinkedIn is now secured with multi-factor authentication. The next time you log into your account on a new device, you will be asked to enter the current verification code in your authenticator app. You can return to this security settings page to change your authentication method at any time.

How you can get even more security

We recommend setting up multi-factor authentication on any accounts that allow it. While we have guides for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, this applies to accounts beyond social media. By following security best practices, such as locking your phone, you can protect your accounts, both personal and business, from costly breaches.