LinkedIn and Branding: Making Yourself Marketable to Employers

Social networking has taken over the internet and people's lives alike. While sites like Facebook and Twitter allow friends to stay in touch and see every single thing each other does to an almost stalker-like level, the role of social networking for business and anyone with a brand to promote has also been steadily increasing. It should come as no surprise then that LinkedIn, a social networking site designed for professional networking, has also increased in it's role in the business world.

Professional networking allows for one to be exposed to job opportunities, training resources, and events that will allow for further professional networking that would be hard to find out about otherwise. LinkedIn provides the perfect channel for these opportunities by connecting people on the most powerful medium for finding and sharing information about them--the Internet. As such, considering and building one's professional network on LinkedIn is critical for getting ahead in the business community. This is easier said then done, however, since how one goes about this and brands his- or herself can play an important role in finding and leveraging these opportunities.

Making sure your profile is complete and accurate is just the first step of properly branding yourself. This is what potential employers or referrers will see first. Obviously it is important to keep things professional, including your profile picture, to send the right impression. It's also important to make sure to provide details of as much relevant experience and qualifications as possible since this is what job opening opportunities will be looking for. Given the increase in automation, making sure to use proper terminology for these qualifications is also important since chances are a program looking for keywords may be the one doing the initial survey of your profile rather than a person who would be capable of determining what you meant to say. Some companies have even replaced traditional resumes as a way of screening potential hires with LinkedIn profiles, largely due to this automation.

Your profile, regardless of how good you make it, is still only useful if the right people actually see it. It's important to make the right connections on LinkedIn both on- and offline. Make sure you provide your LinkedIn information to anyone who would be a valuable professional networking contact, especially potential employers. Since you are constantly evolving professionally it's important to make these connections even if at the time you may not be what they are looking for since one day your qualifications and the employer's requirements may align and you'll have missed the opportunity otherwise. Even if this doesn't happen, they may know of other job prospects that are suited to your skills and refer you. Job fairs and seminars are a great place to make these connections, so go to as many as possible and be sure to exchange information.

Even within LinkedIn and the Internet as a whole there are opportunities for networking. Searching for and connecting with people who already work for companies and in fields you would be interested in is a good way to make valuable contacts, along with joining groups related to both of these factors as well.[1] Likewise, groups and forums outside of LinkedIn that are of interest to you and related to your field can also be a great place to find professional contacts to network with on LinkedIn. People you already know are important to connect with since even if they aren't in a related field they may have connections that are. They also might not be fully aware of what job interests and qualifications you actually have, which your well-designed profile will tell them.

Everyone wants to find a satisfying and meaningful career that keeps them constantly interested and growing within it. This is easier said than done, but utilizing powerful tools such as LinkedIn to maximize your exposure and connections is a key element to achieving this goal. Even if you don't know what this goal actually is yet, connecting with people who do things that interest you can help you determine what you want to do based on their experiences they relate to you. So go out there and start using your LinkedIn account as much as your Facebook account, although not in the same manner for obvious reasons, and your path to a rewarding career will be underway.

[1] How to Use LinkedIn for Business

QR codes: Security Vulnerabilities Have Never Been Quicker

Although originally designed for use in manufacturing where larger amounts of data than can be encoded in a traditional single-dimensional barcode was needed, the versatility and amount of data storage that QR Codes allow for has expanded their capability and use greatly. The most common use is undoubtedly to link users to websites via phones capable of reading these codes, in particular smartphones. While any number of other uses exist, from loading contact information to providing access to wireless networks[1], the ability to launch hyperlinks is undoubtedly the most widespread use at least as far as the consumer market is concerned. This, however, can also be problematic as it carries all the same security concerns as clicking on a hyperlink from the web or, perhaps a better analogy as far as security is concerned, email.

Since many instances of QR Codes are found in public areas, they become vulnerable to attack via modification. Although several fairly complicated methods of modifying existing QR codes to do things other than what is intended exist[2], simply creating and attaching and new code seems the most likely and, despite the article's standpoint, easiest attack vector. Nonetheless, several interesting attacks are outlined that include several common url-based attacks such as SQL injection and command injection, as well as well as phone-specific attacks such as using a buffer overflow to compromise the phone or scanning device directly.[2]

Since QR Codes from a security standpoint can best be likened to links found within email, many of the same threats exist. The two most common types of threats that exist within email that could easily be extended to QR Codes are drive-by downloads and phishing scams. Drive-by downloads simply involve sending the user to a site that automatically downloads and installs software, generally malware, to the user's computer or device. These are quite common in email and as mobile device malware continues to become more prevalent QR Codes seem a good candidate for delivery along with traditional email.

Phishing, on the other hand, involves trying to get a user to enter and submit personal information, usually through a website that is designed to mimic a legitimate website. This is often limited simply to email addresses which will undoubtedly be added to spam lists, but can extend as far as online login credential for banks or even account numbers or social security numbers. A perfect example of how a QR Code might be used in phishing would be to attach a fake QR Code to a bank website that directs the user to a clone of the site and captures their login credentials. The sophistication of phishing sites varies, but can range from simply submitting whatever form data you enter as-is to creating a man-in-the-middle site that verifies with the actual bank site that a username exists and even circumventing security measures, for example fetching the Site Key from Bank of America and displaying it on the fake site. Others still will progressively escalate the sensitivity of the data they try to steal by starting out just gaining login credentials, but then asking you to fill out more sensitive data to "verify your account" on subsequent pages.

Some basic security precautions that are recommended when using QR Codes include verifying what URL the code is trying to take you to before actually allowing your device to follow it, including checking the destination URL in the case of shorteners.[1] This of course is easier said than done as most users of QR Codes are after the efficiency that they provide and are unlikely to check these things, especially in the case of shortened URLs. Even in the case of traditional browsers where the URL for a link is generally shown somewhere within the chrome of the browser, users often don't bother looking as is evidenced by the success of malicious sites in general. Even when checking this, knowing how to detect potentially risky URLs is a bit of an art that few people possess. Another security tip requiring diligence on the part of both those generating the QR Codes and those using them is to include in the case of the former and look for in the case of the latter https in the url.[3] SSL is becoming increasingly widespread, breaking out of the traditional use for just logging into an account, as security awareness and concerns become more prevalent, but is still not as recognized or widespread as is probably necessary yet. Security in general required diligence on the part of both those creating and maintaining systems as well as those using them, so the human factor is always they key limitation in security. Creating awareness, however, is the best way to increase security for a better and safer computing experience.

[1] Narayanan, A. Sankara. "QR Codes and Security Solutions." International Journal of Computer Science and Telecommunications 3.7 (2012): 69-72. Print.

[2] Kieseberg, Peter et al. "QR Code Security." SBA Research, unkown year. Print.

[3] Cole, Eric. "URL Shorteners / QR Codes." OUCH! June 2013: 1-3. Print.

Social Networking and security. . .or lack of when promoting your brand.

The world of social networking is a new and evolving one bringing about heated discussions over previously overlooked topics such as privacy and security. As long as there is an internet to find it on it's likely that everything you ever post will stick around and be findable by someone. Don't believe me? Just ask my friend who can't use his brand name anymore after googling it and finding a questionable AIM conversation we had that I posted to a website over ten years ago. This illustrates the first concern social networking and the internet as a whole pose to the security of your brand name: permanence. If you, and employee, or anyone else posts something that casts your brand in a bad light that will be out there and can potentially hurt your brand image. This can be inadvertent or possibly even targeted since your brand isn't the only one out there for whatever market you are in.

There are a vast number of tools out there to help you manage your brand and track how it is received, but those tools are also available to your competition and could potentially be used against you. Let's suppose your brand is Coca-Cola and the evil Pepsi is your competitor. While you use tools to track what people are saying about your wonderful product on social media sites, Pepsi can do the exact same thing for not only their brand, but also for yours. This could allow them to find out what your customers like, dislike, and want out of your brand, which in turn can allow Pepsi to target their advertising or even product to what your customer base wants and steal your customers. Although this is a more indirect threat to your brand security, it still can hurt sales and thus weaken your brand.

Suppose now that the evil brand Pepsi wants to be a little bit more proactive in attacking your brand. Knowing that you likely follow social networking to find out how best to improve your brand, they could start a campaign to bloat your data with false information. It's not hard to sign up for a social networking account and start posting whatever you want about a product or service, so multiply this by a few thousand and you're getting false feedback on how best to improve your brand. Social networking also doesn't do a particularly good job of verifying your are who you say your are, so they could even pose as employees of your fine company and start posting messages that will hurt your brand's image. While it would technically be possible to prove in the long run that the account was not actually of an employee, the damage to your brand at that point would already be done.

The internet has been likened to the Wild West and while this is a large part of the appeal it has, it also means that there are many privacy and security concerns you must be aware of when making a presence on it, both personally and professionally. Your brand needs a presence on the internet and especially within social networking, but protecting and managing it within that context is critical. If you still don't think that the internet can potentially pose a huge threat to your business, go ahead and read this: http://www.kiplinger.com/article/investing/T048-C000-S002-the-truth-behind-penny-stock-spam.html.