LinkedIn has recently been flooded with fake executive profiles that are causing confusion on the Microsoft-owned social media business platform. For the millions who use LinkedIn to check for and hire employees, fake identities are a real problem.
KrebsOnSecurity investigated many of the fake LinkedIn profiles, which combine text copied from real executive accounts with AI-generated profile images. The security outlet found many inauthentic accounts that were all pretending to be Chief Information Security Officers (CISO) at Fortune 500 companies.
Following that report, feedback from LinkedIn users and HR departments using the network is that the false profiles are everywhere, mostly mimicking executive positions within major organizations. KrebsOnSecurity provides several first-hand accounts from businesses that have been affected by the phony profiles.
Reasons?
In a separate report, Bloomberg points out that LinkedIn has mostly been able to avoid the bot profiles that plague other social media networks. That now seems to be changing. Why fake profiles are becoming more common is unclear.
Speaking to Bloomberg, digital security firm Mandiant says threat actors associated with North Korea have been copying profiles from LinkedIn and Indeed. This is part of a ploy to acquire jobs at cryptocurrency companies. It is unclear if this is related to the spate of fake profiles on LinkedIn.
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