Could you be sharing too much information on your LinkedIn profile?

LinkedIn users often choose to make their personal or professional contact information publicly available. Cybersecurity companies recommend that you check which contact details you share on your LinkedIn profile and who can see them.

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Cybercriminals are always researching sources where they can access everything from email addresses to phone numbers and users' friend lists to reach their targets.

They also leverage technology as they advance toward their goals using social engineering tools. They can access data by using programs called web scraping tools to collect information from websites.

Compiling a list of a company's employees or gathering a list of "supply chain targets" related to a company is no longer difficult for them. For this reason, LinkedIn users in particular need to be careful and pay attention to what they publish.

WHAT INFORMATION SHOULD YOU SHARE?

By choosing not to share any contact information other than what is necessary for the platform and your direct connections, you significantly limit the amount of information criminals can collect about you. Your full name, job title, and the geographic location of your company will, of course, still be visible.

LinkedIn profiles that make email addresses public: While LinkedIn users often share personal contact information, some may also disclose their current corporate email addresses.

In both cases, this can allow malicious actors to engage in more targeted interactions with their victims and give them clues about the typical email format used by the company.

LEADS TO DATA MISUSE

LinkedIn profiles that make phone numbers public: Some people may choose to disclose their phone numbers in the hope that, for example, recruiters and employers can contact them more easily for interviews, or that it will facilitate communication with potential business contacts or clients.

However, as with emails, this can lead to fake calls, messages (in other words, smishing), potential data misuse, and privacy breaches.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO MINIMIZE THE RISKS?

Due to the nature of social networks and any platform, criminals can access some of our data online. However, there are several precautions you can take to prevent criminals from accessing your most valuable information on LinkedIn:

Configure your LinkedIn privacy settings. LinkedIn offers various options to limit the information that people outside of your connections can access. You should apply the same types of measures on other social media sites, but this can be especially important for LinkedIn.

Limit the amount of information on your profile. As a social media platform, LinkedIn provides built-in tools for networking and job searching. Consider prioritizing communication through the platform and avoid sharing external contact data.

Do not accept connection requests without reviewing them. Since there are many bots and fake profiles on the platform, verify the authenticity of each connection request before accepting it. Also, be careful when responding to messages on LinkedIn, especially if they are requesting your personal information or sending you links or attachments.

CONNECTION LIST SHOULD BE REVIEWED FREQUENTLY

Regularly review your list of connections. Given the prevalence of fake profiles, regularly review your connection list and remove people who seem suspicious.

Be careful about publishing your profile updates. Perhaps you do not always need to update your job status when your situation changes and broadcast it to the world.

Criminals can monitor such changes and exploit your limited information about your new work environment or situation to send you malicious emails or text messages. Make sure to review your profile's privacy settings to control who can see your contact information and thus minimize the risk of unwanted communication or privacy breaches.

News Source: 12punto