Thousands of LinkedIn bot accounts have been removed from the platform after a massive purge. The fake accounts are said to be affiliated with Apple, but the cybersecurity experts discovered that they do not come from legitimate workers from the Cupertino firm.
LinkedIn Bots Pose as Apple Employee
(Photo : Laurenz Heymann from Unsplash)
According to Apple Insider, several fake accounts on LinkedIn claimed to be connected to Apple.
However, security researchers are alarmed that these accounts are all bogus after observing that they only used fake photos and profile descriptions to make them believable at the very least.
A surge in the number of LinkedIn bots has been happening so far. This month, the widespread purge resulted in trimming down more than 570,000 LinkedIn bot accounts to just 284,991. This deletion only took place in just a single day, according to security researchers.
Amazon, for instance, discovered that the number of its employees on LinkedIn decreased from 1.2 million to over 800,000 in just one day.
Although the bot deletion is evident in the mass removal of invasive accounts on LinkedIn, the job-hunting website has not yet released any statement about this report.
At the time, the LinkedIn profiles linked to Apple employees sit at 281,213.
Related Article: North Korean Fraudsters Leveraging LinkedIn, Indeed Profile Information to Skirt Sanctions with Crypto
Who Might Be the Hackers Behind the LinkedIn Bots?
Krebs Security reported on Thursday, Oct. 20 that LinkedIn might be the mastermind behind the latest purge of harmful account bots. However, it's also possible that the companies involved might have taken action to solve the issue.
Security analysts also wonder about the person or group responsible for the widespread fake accounts of employees on LinkedIn.
However, Mandiant, the cybersecurity firm acquired by Google, suspected that the cybercriminals behind this could be the North Korean hackers who are closely working with the government.
The state-sponsored group of hackers could be copying the online resumes of some users on LinkedIn. They post it on various job listing sites outside LinkedIn including Indeed.
The notorious organization of cybercriminals is also believed to be attacking cryptocurrency firms. They launch schemes to steal crypto information from the victims.
Speaking for crypto firms, Pinho found that more fake profiles are listed under Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
The experts saw 7,846 suspicious profiles affiliated with Binance. However, the following day, the numbers dramatically dropped to 6,102.
The most common victims of these crypto hackers are the people who believe in "quick-to-get-rich" schemes. The researchers also believed that the fake accounts are related to the recent "pig-butchering" scams on the platform.
As the analysts say, you should not always engage with people whom you do not know personally especially the new accounts. Make sure to check if their profiles are sketchy before you proceed to interact with them.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry
