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3 LinkedIn security features to stay protected
Your parents or grandparents may have told stories about looking for work and how they knocked on doors until they were hired. Well, it hasn’t worked that way in quite a while. You’ll be stopped by security in most office building lobbies before you can get anywhere.
The process of landing a job, being prepared and having a good resume and experience hasn’t changed. But you can now explore hundreds or thousands of positions at once, thanks to job search sites.
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, with nearly a billion members globally. While this offers a wealth of opportunities for job seekers and recruiters, it also makes the site a prime target for hackers. Fortunately, LinkedIn has features to help remove fake profiles and threat actors.
Stopping scammers in their tracks
Scammers often impersonate well-known brands and companies to gain their victims’ trust. Social networks provide a platform for crooks to spam countless people with messages containing malicious links and malware.
Research shows that LinkedIn is the most impersonated brand for phishing attacks, accounting for nearly half of these cybercrimes globally. Tap or click here for our report of the top 10 brands to watch out for.
LinkedIn announced its plans to tackle fraudulent activity in a blog post. Here are tools you can use to help keep you safe.
1. Learn more about a profile
LinkedIn has a feature that lets you verify a profile’s authenticity. By going to a profile and tapping the More button, then About this profile, you’ll get more information, including the following:
- When the profile was created.
- When the profile was last updated.
- Whether the member has verified a phone number.
- Whether the member has a work email associated with their account.
Scammers don’t take the time to keep their profiles updated, especially since they constantly create new ones to target fresh victims. Also, scammers can’t verify that information without access to a company email.
Use this knowledge when deciding to accept a connection or message.
2. Fighting fire with fire
AI-based image generators can create quality profile photos that aren’t real. Scammers can use this technology to make fake profiles appear more convincing.
LinkedIn will use artificial intelligence (AI) to check profile photos for subtle artifacts that indicate a synthetic image. The deep-learning model performs this search without using facial recognition or biometric analysis. The fake accounts will then be removed.
3. Warnings for suspicious messages
LinkedIn will send you a warning if someone messages you to take the conversation elsewhere. This is a red flag in many circumstances, including social media and dating apps.
The scammer wants to get you to a chat app where they can work on stealing your information. They may also send you a link to a messaging app that installs malware on your device.
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Tags: apps, Feature, hackers, malware, network, phishing, phone, photos, security, social media, Target, threat actors
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