May is here and with it some lovely sunshine, but the cyber threats never seem to abate. In this month’s newsletter we look at how your staff can guard against LinkedIn recruitment scams and NCSC innovation on protection against malicious connections between monitors and laptops.
Spotting LinkedIn recruitment scams
LinkedIn is an invaluable professional networking tool but sophisticated social engineering attacks are becoming ever more common. These scams often arrive as normal-looking conversations from polished, apparently credible profiles that borrow authority from recognisable brands to nudge your employees toward small, seemingly innocent actions like clicking a link or sharing “verification” details. Here are a few tips to avoid getting caught out by the hackers and significantly reduce the risk of data exposure and account compromise, whilst still being able to network legitimately:
- slow down, keep conversations on-platform longer and verify roles through official company websites – a big red flag for those who refuse to do the latter
- be wary of recruiters using personal webmail addresses (like @gmail.com)
- look out for vague job descriptions, unclear role details or “we’ll share specifics later”
- don’t be pressured to move fast e.g. “limited slots,” “complete today,” “fast-track hiring”
- avoid being moved off LinkedIn quickly onto WhatsApp/ Telegram/personal email
- never give verification codes
- never give sensitive personal info such as ID scans or bank details early on in the conversation
- never give non-public company information (org charts, client lists, internal tools)
- always respond “no” to requests for money, fees, gift cards, crypto or “equipment purchases”
SilentGlass – a world-first from NCSC
In April, the UK’s NCSC launched SilentGlass, a plug-and-play device that actively blocks any unexpected or malicious HDMI and Display Port connections. This followed its assessment that monitors can be a hugely attractive target for threat actors. Protecting against malicious connections between monitors and laptops, this is the first commercially available product licenced to use NCSC branding that has been granted to Goldilock Labs to manufacture and sell globally. Read more about SilentGlass on the NCSC website.
