They could even impersonate you: why shouldn’t you post your diplomas on LinkedIn?

Finishing technical, university or specialization studies will always be a reason for celebration and pride, but it is important to be careful how this important news is disseminated on social networks, such as LinkedInto prevent data leaks and falsifications.

There is a growing tendency to publish study diplomas, from courses and university degrees to MBA’s, on the LinkedIn social platform. Their owners publish these documents as a photographic file or as a PDF, front and back, and the risks involved in this type of publication can be very serious.according to the director of Kaspersky’s research and analysis team for Latin America, Fabio Assolini.

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“Documents such as university degrees have a unique format of an institutional and include multiple sensitive identification data such as full names, positions, photos, signatures, stamps, graduate codes, among others. Unfortunately, all this data can be used by cybercriminals to carry out forgeries and other crimes, putting the good name of the professionals mentioned in the document, as well as that of the university, at risk.”, he points out.

Among the most common examples of cybercrime with these documents are the identity fraud, posing as the person who owns the diploma; the edition of the document to present a false academic degree, harming contracting companies and the academic institution; and also the use of the names and signatures of the educational authorities to carry out all kinds of fraudsuch as accessing bank accounts.

The exposure of this personal data may also facilitating ‘doxing’, which consists of revealing identifying information about a person online, such as their name, place of work, studies, and other personal data. This information is then released to the public without the consent of the victim.

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In addition, these types of documents could also be traded online to the highest bidder. A recent investigation by the cybersecurity company revealed that Identity documents, such as driver’s licenses and passports, are sold on the dark web for between US$0.50 cents and US$25. A selfie with documents can be found from $40 to $60.

In addition, a study on the company’s online habits reveals that 41% of Latin Americans consider that their family shares too much personal information on social networks. Likewise, in a survey carried out among users at the regional level, it was found that 19% of Latin Americans have regretted publishing private information about their family, work and others.

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What should I do when I want to share a title on LinkedIn?

Source: Elcomercio

Callum

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