In March 2026, International Women’s month no less, an online visibility event I was hosting got hacked and ‘zoom-bombed’. Then just 20 minutes after this, someone tried to hack into my LinkedIn from an unknown location. Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it was connected to the zoom bombing. Either way, I saw my entire livelihood disappear before my eyes.
LinkedIn is one of the most valuable professional tools available to legal marketers, lawyers, and legal founders but I learnt the hard way that we all need more information and guidance on how to protect our LinkedIn world when there are so many digital threats.
We invest so much time building our LinkedIn presence, but what steps have you taken recently to secure your account and protect your digital security?
If you are investing time in building visibility and authority on LinkedIn, the last thing you need is to lose control of your account, your content, or your professional reputation because of something preventable.
So, we have put together this blog. It’s one of our more serious blogs, but then LinkedIn security is a serious matter.
Why LinkedIn Security Matters More Than You Might Think
LinkedIn is not just a social network. For many legal professionals, it is a direct line to clients, referrals, speaking opportunities, and professional credibility. Your profile holds your employment history, your connections, your content, and in many cases, a significant amount of trust that you have built over years. We chatted to Samuel Tamkin from Workplace Connect, Saltmarsh Marketing’s Cyber Security Partner for their take on LinkedIn security for those who use this platform as a business tool. Sam said:
“Social engineering is one of the most common ways attackers start fraud, and professional platforms like LinkedIn give them a natural place to impersonate, build trust, gather intelligence and start a conversation. Once that trust is established, or an account is compromised, the risk can quickly spread to colleagues, clients and suppliers. And it rarely stops with one fake connection request or one suspicious message. In the wrong hands, LinkedIn can become a tool for impersonation, reconnaissance and highly convincing fraud. An attacker can use a compromised or convincing fake account to approach trusted contacts, while also using profile information and visible connections to build a far more believable next-stage attack.”
With those words of warning, let’s take a look at some of the things you can therefore do, to protect your account on LinkedIn.
The Basics: LinkedIn Account Security Settings You Should Check Today
Before we get into the more nuanced stuff, let us make sure we start with the foundations. These are the settings that you may easily have missed.
Turn On Two-Step Verification
Go to Settings and Privacy > Sign In and Security > enable two-step verification. This means that even if someone gets hold of your password, they cannot access your account without a secondary code sent to your phone or an authenticator app.
This really is a non-negotiable. Do it now.
Review Your Active Sessions
OK, now that you’re back, let’s review your active sessions to make sure there’s nothing suspicious. Again, navigate to Settings & Privacy > Sign In & Security > Where you sign in. LinkedIn will let you see every device and location that is currently logged into your account. If you see something unfamiliar, you can end that session immediately. Make it a habit to check this regularly.
Audit Your Connected Apps
Over time, you may well have granted third-party apps access to your LinkedIn account. Some of these may be marketing or scheduling tools you use regularly but others may be tools you have forgotten about entirely! Remove anything you do not recognise or no longer use. Each connected app is a potential vulnerability. You can do this by going to Settings and Privacy > Data Privacy > Other Applications > Permitted services.
Protecting Your Profile from Impersonation
Profile impersonation is a growing problem for those with strong online presences. This can look like profile cloning where a bad actor creates a fake profile that looks almost identical to the original, using your name and photo. Impersonated profiles can then send connection requests and build a fake network, which can risk serious reputational and commercial damage.
A couple of things worth doing:
Check your profile photo privacy. If your photo is publicly visible and downloadable, it does make it easier for someone to replicate your profile. LinkedIn allows you to limit who can see your photo in settings.
To do this you can go to your profile > click your profile picture > click the ‘eye’ icon > select ‘Your Network’. This level of visibility lets people who are connected up to three degrees away from you see your profile.
Doing the above does however mean that those outside your network will not see your photo, which can be an issue for those who are looking to grow a substantial following.
Search your own name on LinkedIn. This may feel as gross as googling yourself! But doing this periodically, will help you identify a duplicate or impersonator profile. You can then report the fraudulent profile to LinkedIn.
Our friends at Workplace Connect had the following advice:
“Do not just protect your LinkedIn account – protect the email account linked to it as well. If that mailbox is compromised, it may create a route into password resets and account recovery. Be careful how much your profile reveals publicly. Role details, networks, clients, suppliers and business activity can all help an attacker make a fake approach feel genuine. And remember, not every suspicious connection request looks suspicious straight away. Sometimes the goal is simply to get close enough to watch, learn and use that information later.”
Managing Trolls, Difficult Comments, and Derailing Conversations
Now – what about when your account remains secure and you’ve been working hard on your visibility but that visibility also attracts unwanted attention?
If you are posting consistently on LinkedIn, particularly as a member of a marginalised group, and even more so if you hold a strong opinion, you will at some point encounter a challenging comment or reply, a troll, or someone who seems determined to derail the conversation.
Unfortunately, when it comes to unwanted attention and increased visibility, it’s not OK, it’s not acceptable but until LinkedIn increases its commitment to security, it is somewhat inevitable. So how can you handle it when it does happen?
When to Engage
It is perfectly acceptable to respond to a genuine disagreement or a challenging question; this can be a useful opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and build credibility. And of course, hearty debate is healthy and can show that you are confident in your thinking. Engaging calmly and intelligently to those who disagree with you can actually work in your favour. Who wants your network to become a Linkedin echo chamber, after all? What’s more, I often tell lawyers that engaging in healthy, constructive and factual debate in the LinkedIn comments is a brilliant opportunity to show how excellent you are in your advocacy.
When to Leave It
Not every comment deserves a reply. In fact, responding to obvious AI, low-quality, provocative, or bad-faith comments are not worth your time or effort. If a comment adds nothing or appears designed purely to provoke you, leaving it unanswered is a completely legitimate strategy. This is your LinkedIn, your network and you get to use it how you see fit.
When to Delete
If a comment is offensive, discriminatory, or designed to intimidate, you are within your right to delete it, and block or report if necessary. You are not obliged to host that content on your post, especially if creating a safe space for your connections and followers is important to you. Your LinkedIn feed is your own professional space. You have every right to moderate it accordingly.
When to Block
If someone is consistently showing up in bad faith, repeatedly targeting your content, or creating a pattern of harassment, block them. Blocking removes them from your network, prevents them from seeing your content, and means they cannot message or interact with you. It does not notify them. You can also choose to report that profile at the same time if the behaviour crosses into genuine harassment.
You Can Build Visibility AND Stay Safe on LinkedIn
So often there is a conflict whirring away in the minds of legal professionals – they are keen to become more visible on LinkedIn but they are equally fearful of that visibility. What if you say the wrong thing? What if someone challenges you or says you’re wrong? What if one of the scenarios I have mentioned above occurs?
And of course there are the aforementioned privacy and security risks that have been addressed earlier in this blog.
But I can tell you that the answer is not to stay quiet. The answer is to show up in a way that is secure, considered and intentional and that protects your boundaries.
Good LinkedIn account security, smart privacy settings, and a clear approach to showing up with empathy, intention and a perspective that genuinely reflects your values means you can build your presence without leaving yourself unnecessarily exposed.
If you want to read more about how to build that presence in the first place, this blog on LinkedIn for legal leaders covers how to show up, Speak Up and Stay Human in a Divided World.
A Quick Checklist: LinkedIn Security and Safety Audit
Run through these in one sitting:
- Switch on two-step verification
- Review your active sessions
- Audit your connected third-party apps
- Ensure your password is updated and unique to LinkedIn
- Check your profile photo privacy settings
- Search yourself to look for impersonators
Final Thought
LinkedIn remains one of the highest-value platforms available to legal leaders and founders for building authority, visibility, and a pipeline of work. It is worth protecting. Not just the account itself, but the professional reputation you are building with it.
The time you invest in showing up on LinkedIn, writing thoughtful content, building your network, and establishing your credibility, it’s long-term, strategic work. Security is not a one-off task. Nor is visibility. Both require intention, consistency, and the occasional audit to make sure what you have built is still working the way you need it to.
Key Takeaways: LinkedIn Account Security for Legal Professionals
- LinkedIn account security is no longer optional in 2026 if you are actively building a professional presence in the legal sector
- Two-step verification, active session reviews, and connected app audits are your non-negotiables
- Profile impersonation is a growing risk, and periodic name searches can help spot this ASAP
- You have every right to moderate your comment section, delete offensive content, and block bad-faith actors
- Visibility and safety are not in conflict. With the right foundations in place, you can show up with security control and confidence.
FAQs: LinkedIn Security and Safety for Legal Professionals
How do I know if my LinkedIn account has been compromised? Check your active sessions under Settings and Privacy > Sign In and Security. If you see unfamiliar devices or locations, end those sessions immediately and change your password.
Should I restrict my LinkedIn profile photo visibility? For most legal professionals, keeping your photo visible is the right call for credibility, but you can restrict it to people in your extended network.
What is the best way to handle a troll on LinkedIn? It depends on the nature of the comment. Substantive disagreement is worth engaging with calmly. Provocative or bad-faith comments are usually best left unanswered or deleted. If the behaviour is repeated, or crosses into harassment or offensive, block and report.
How often should I audit my LinkedIn security settings? Once a month is a reasonable habit, and any time you suspect unusual activity. LinkedIn occasionally updates its settings, so it is worth checking they still reflect your preferences.
About Saltmarsh Marketing
Saltmarsh Marketing specialises in legal marketing strategy and visibility for the brave, the bold and the entrepreneurial.
We work with legal founders, law firm leaders, and all-round industry trailblazers. People who see marketing as an investment, not an afterthought. If you’re here, chances are you’re launching, growing, or rebranding a legal business, ready to build influence and attract better clients, and fed up of bland marketing advice that doesn’t get you results.
Sound familiar?
Book a call to discuss how we might be able to work together to give your marketing a dose of direction, strategy and growth.