Over the weekend, Twitter suffered from some security problems that fell more on the mischievous than malicious side of things. Now, the sort of social media trouble quotient appears to have risen a bit as fake LinkedIn profiles are trying to send users towards malware.
People who investigate LinkedIn profiles with names such as “Kate Hudson Nude,” “Paris Hilton Nude,” and “Beyonce Nude” (you see the pattern) should by all means stay away from the “websites” sections. Macky Cruz, a Trend Micro employee, warns that links here take users to some stuff that is not the same as whatever pictures or videos they’re seeking.
Trend Micro’s Capture Of A Fake Profile
The average LinkedIn user probably isn’t on the site to look at naked flesh, of course, so as hackers go, whoever’s behind this is still kind of nice. Becoming scared of one’s friends, abandoning the site, and so on isn’t called for just yet.
So why make the effort at all? Well, Graham Cluley writes, “[S]pammers, malware authors and other cybercriminals may be abusing the system to link to their webpages in the hope that it will generate a higher ranking in search engines like Google.”
Website owners will probably want to keep a closer-than-usual eye on their comments sections to make sure nothing similar happens there.
