By Pascal Oparada
Social Media/Tech Reporter
A report by the Associated Press (AP) says the professional social media network, LinkedIn, is brimming over with foreign spies who use computer generated photos to try to hoodwink unsuspecting people into giving out personal, company and/or state secrets.
According to the report, foreign intelligence agencies use LinkedIn to target, connect with and gain knowledge about political affairs of a country, especially that of the U.S. and its allies.
Spies disguise as real professionals, build impressive profiles on the platform and target high profile political or business figures to connect with and gradually build confidence and then get credible information about the workings of a company or a country.
These fake profiles send out thousands of connection requests at a time.
There has been multiple incidents of high profile American figures being targeted by Russian or Chinese spy operations via connections they unwittingly accepted on LinkedIn.
The report detailed a case of a high profile American figure who accepted a connection request from one Katie Jones with impressive LinkedIn profile.
It turns out the account was fake as none of Katie Jones’ claims are true.
Before then she has connected with people who have strong political ties to the Trump administration.
LinkedIn told the AP that it removes fake accounts; indeed, it removed Jones’ account shortly after the AP inquired about Katie Jones. But as multiple other social networks have demonstrated, a reactionary stance in the fight against fake activity online is an insufficient one.
Professionals use LinkedIn a lot for jobs, professional courses and interactions which makes it a prime hunting ground for foreign spies.
