Is it risky to use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn might not be the obvious choice when you think about risky social media platforms since it has high trust and is used by influential executives and leaders. But just like any other online service, the more information you share on LinkedIn, the higher the risk.

The following can help you learn more about the hazards of what you post online, and see some of the ways in which LinkedIn can pose a threat to your safety.

Social engineering

Treating your LinkedIn like a professional billboard or extension of your resume may seem innocuous. After all, you’re just listing your career achievements, not sharing your holiday photos or children's birthdays.

But your detailed profile gives attackers plenty of useful information about you they can use to create sophisticated social engineering campaigns. Even in a basic scenario, malicious actors can uncover your colleagues’ names and spoof their email addresses to send you phishing emails.

Corporate espionage

Forget people in black stealing precious jewels, corporate espionage looks more like requests to connect on LinkedIn that morph into trusting relationships that accidentally lead to sharing confidential information.

If you hold a privileged role within an organisation such as in finance, system administration, or executive, you could be at risk of a corporate espionage attack.

Physical assault

LinkedIn is a great way to share information about an upcoming event to promote attendance. But what if someone was looking for a way to find out exactly where you’d be at a given time? It’s easy to forget that what we share online can have physical consequences in the real world.

Reputation damage

Did you know that there are millions of fake LinkedIn accounts out there? If one of those fake account pretends to belong to an organisation and posts misleading or damaging information, it can have severe repercussions for the organisation. Even innocent posts about your work can have inadvertent consequences so be mindful of what you post as it can reflect back on ACU.

What can you do?

The best ways to protect yourself against these dangers are to:

• Think twice about what you’re sharing on your online platforms, including LinkedIn.
• Question what you see online and verify the identify of anyone who contacts you through these platforms.
• Know the signs of a phishing campaign.

Want to learn more?

These are just summaries of some of the dangers associated with LinkedIn. You can learn more from the following resources:

• The corporate security risks of being on LinkedIn
• Don’t overlook LinkedIn as a corporate security risk
• LinkedIn’s fake profile problem is causing information security risks

Note that while all online activities should be undertaken with care, LinkedIn Learning is an associated but separate learning platform used by ACU to provide professional development for ACU staff and students.