I created a LinkedIn as a homework assignment for one of my college courses. The assignment emphasized the importance of networking. Upon creation, I quickly added friends and classmates. I had a modest amount of connections and followers, nearly 200. After college, I only used the account to look and apply for jobs. On occasion I would connect with new colleagues, but it was rare.
I deactivated my account in July 2023 and didn’t pay much attention to it. That was until I started receiving “Recruiter View” emails did I start to look into my LinkedIn. Throughout the end of 2023, during the hack, I would received Recruiter View emails from LinkedIn, emails I never received from LinkedIn before and to this day I’m not sure what they even mean.
I downloaded all of my data for LinkedIn and discovered there were three accounts that I did not follow, but were listed under my unfollowed profiles. I, Alexis, never followed these accounts but someone else accessing my LinkedIn did. I put a screenshot of the three accounts I’m referring to in my gallery. The profiles make no sense and only one of the profiles I was familiar with. That profile was of a former friend that I was texting right before I discovered I was hacked. That individual asked me to share my location and I did because we were friends at the time. When I discovered I was hacked, I tried to turn off the location sharing but I was unable to. It was then when I discovered it was not a legitimate request but it was malware. I had to reset my entire device, which still did not stop the location sharing. I eventually deactivated service for the phone and had to get a completely new device.
My LinkedIn was never the same after it was accessed by another individual. I tried to keep it, as it was the only social media account I had remaining and it housed important evidence but I was unable to due to the nature of the hack and the continued aftermath.
