Hackers Scrape LinkedIn Member Profiles

[Marc]

Hackers use Amazon cloud to scrape mass number of LinkedIn member profiles

Identity theft food (among other things)...

 

[AndyN]

Interesting. I had a small group on Linkedin and seemed to get a huge number of bogus profiles wanting to join. I got so sick of reviewing them before approval, that I shut the group down, since no-one posted anything...

 

[PaulJSmith]

I have a LinkedIn account that I almost never use. Perhaps I should be checking in on it a little more frequently ...

 

[kgott]

Hackers use Amazon cloud to scrape mass number of LinkedIn member profiles

Identity theft food (among other things)...

Just another modern world survival peril.

I wonder if they are employees of the NSA, the mafia, the police, or data harvesting, storage and analysis companies?

 

[Marc]

All of the above.

 

[Ronen E]

Just another modern world survival peril.

I wonder if they are employees of the NSA, the mafia, the police, or data harvesting, storage and analysis companies?

You've watched too many conspiracy movies, mate

 

[TPMB4]

Think I'll revert back to my old 12 digit password with numbers and capitals. If they're willing to spend that amount of money to crack it they have too much money to burn and might feel predisposed to leaving some in my account once they're into it! I only added the capitals because I forgot my password too many times and had already used the only password I could think of that I could easily remember. If you've used one password they don't let you use it again but a simple capital letter in it lets you have it again. Just not at the beginning as I'm sure that would make it easier to force the password out, I mean who uses a capital in the miDdle of a wOrd in normal useaGe?

BTW does anyone when setting new passwords not listen to the weak, medium or strong password comments they sometimes put on their registration pages? Do we all keep tweaking our passwords until we get a strong password? Or do you just stick with the bare minimum of 6 characters all lowercase letters?

 

[mguilbert]

Just some more food for thought. I am sure you all have seen the commercials where a security company offers cameras so you can view your home when you are away via the web. During a recent meeting on of my peers has this option. I wonder how long before theives use this to determine when you are out or most vulnerable? Or could this be a tool used by modern day peeping toms?

 

[Marc]

Just some more food for thought. I am sure you all have seen the commercials where a security company offers cameras so you can view your home when you are away via the web. During a recent meeting on of my peers has this option. I wonder how long before theives use this to determine when you are out or most vulnerable? Or could this be a tool used by modern day peeping toms?

Both - And more. I haven't been following the technology for a few years but almost all of those "security" cams broadcast in the clear (no encryption or very weak inscription) and there used to be searches and web sites where you could sean for camera IPs. Not too many years back I played with looking around at camera feeds from different places (businesses and homes show up). Nothing of interest to me showed up on any but it was easy to find thousands of them.

In the "early" days it was as easy as listening to people's home phones that had wireless handsets was. In the early days none of that was encrypted or even different channels for transmit/receive. A lot of standard RF scanners could easily pick up people's conversations.

Recently there was an article about how the NSA can turn on people's computer cameras without turning the "camera is active" light on even though the light was technically "hardwired" to turn on. I sort of figure if there's a camera and/or a microphone on a computer either or both can be on without anyone knowing it. More: Perv Utopia: Light on MacBook webcams can be bypassed

And there is malware that can record stuff: Webcam spying goes mainstream as Miss Teen USA describes hack

 

[TPMB4]

Well my laptop webcam used to come on suddenly no matter how many times I disabled it. I was getting annoyed with it and confused as to how it was happening. I ran countless malware scans to find out if there was something like that going on. Nothing came up.

Anyway i got round it by putting two layers of black duct tape or electrical tape over the camera and thought nothing of it. Then one day I took that off to use the webcam and before I put it back I disabled the camera only for it to come back. I suddenly realised I had been accidentally pressing a combination of keys that had a special function...to turn the webcam on!!! Felt and idiot but still tape the camera up just in case. Never thought of the microphone though.

When home wifi was new there were numerous scare stories about people driving around "listening in" on wifi traffic. Then most routers now come with encryption turned on as the default. The best way as most users are either lazy or ignorant of computers and security. And then NSA and GCHQ (plus other nation's eavesdroppers) get round it all anyway if they want to (and they always do i reckon).