Linkedin Profiles For Hackers

Linkedin Profiles Are Like Gold For Hackers

A hacker can get personal information from your LinkedIn profiles when you leave your Linkedin profile public setting turned on. Hackers are using Linkedin as a platform to gain access to sensitive information.

This is because LinkedIn is one of the internet’s most popular social media sites. Professionals in all fields use it to connect with others and build their networks.

We are amazed at how many cyber security professionals on Linkedin do not understand that they are simply leaving all their professional information and activity open to the general public on the internet outside of Linkedin which is freely accessible.

Did you know by adding your professional profile to the LinkedIn business network automatically creates a public version of the profile that will appear in Google and other search engine results for your name ?

This is OSINT gold and 98% of the Cyber Security professionals don’t even realise that they are broadcasting to the public internet outside of Linkedin. Your public profile setting on Linkedin allows all the search engines to index everything you do on Linkedin to everyone even if they don’t have an account on Linkedin.

Hackers are also taking advantage of this popularity and using it as a tool to steal your personal information. LinkedIn is not just used by businesses or recruiters anymore; it’s also now being used by cyber criminals who have found a new way to target individuals with their attacks. And they are doing this through their public Linkedin profiles that are freely available on the internet outside of Linkedin.

Cybersecurity professionals are a high value target for attackers and usually have a lot of sensitive data on their hard drives. This makes them a prime target for phishing attacks.

LinkedIn lets you control the privacy and visibility settings for your profile, so if you would prefer to disable the public version of your profile and remove it from search engines, you can do so from the “Settings” page. Your LinkedIn profile will then be visible only to other LinkedIn members and the contacts in your LinkedIn network and not to the general public.

Step 1

Sign in to your LinkedIn account.

Step 2

Point to “Profile” on the main menu bar.

Step 3

Click the “Edit Profile” option from the drop-down menu.

Step 4

Click the “Edit” link next to “Public Profile” in your profile pane.