Last week both Meta and LinkedIn were “down,” intermittently on different days, but it created a hole in our usual addictive reliance on both being “up,” such that the messages started pouring in, to me and on email or other communication platforms to see if others were experiencing the same.

Misery needs company I guess.

I believe that outages may happen, increasingly, and while I hope I am wrong, I am concerned about social media, and the global internet, as newsy targets.

To answer the initial bullet-sweating consternation that perhaps you were hacked, instead of what is more easily tolerated (as in a system outage), my strong recommendation is query an independent source, Down Detector, and here I am gave you the specific link to see if LinkedIn is experiencing widespread outages.

That should provide a clue to the severity of the issue or near panic you are experiencing.

But if you lose access to LinkedIn by indeed being hacked, go to @LinkedInHelp on X (the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter) for fastest attention (really–on X and not on LinkedIn!), or you can create a service ticket on LinkedIn customer support.

Be sure you have two-factor verification on LinkedIn please. That’s one defense against hackers.

Which makes this post a timely reminder of another defensive move you should take: back up your LinkedIn profile to your hard drive, JIC you need to recreate it.

Yes, LinkedIn will send you a backup file now. Here’s the link how (keep this link!) to get this sent to you, over a couple of days’ time, which is their fastest turnaround time, in a couple of steps.

Do this now.

Further suggestion: put this task and the last link (why I suggested you keep it) on your calendar for recurring dates, as in quarterly if you like, so you do not forget.

Do this now.

I did because it popped up on my calendar coincidentally with the outage event…. both.

Tell me you did too.

Tell others by sharing this post.

Someone someday will thank you for saving them (perhaps that person may be you thanking me!)