idealpeople blog

Last week saw an interesting security breach of a different kind, and one which raises some questions about the integrity of on-line CV databases.

Totaljobs suffered a pretty heavy-sounding security breach. It appears that someone had set up a fake website, stole their branding and then bashed an e-mail out to as many recruiters out there as possible, asking them to click a link in the e-mail, and then input their username and password. The idea probably being to get hold of the rafts of personal information relating to jobseekers stored in the TotalJobs database.

Phishing is a bit of a problem at the moment it seems. This blogger gets around 2 phishing e-mails a day from “banks” - and we weren’t surprised to see jobsites being targetted.

Why is this important?

Well, to put it simply, we’ve noticed that a significant number of people put information in their CVs which really doesn’t need to be there, and which is *potentially* dangerous. So we decided to do some research on how valuable this information might be.

We found this site on identity theft, which startled us a little. It seems (and when you think about it, this is quite logical) that a potential thief could use your name, address & date of birth and take a store card/credit card out in your name.

Thankfully, TotalJobs dealt with this attack well (credit where credit’s due), and shut down their CV database and advertising services until everything was back to normal and passwords changed.

However, the moral of the story for you, the jobseeker, is this.

Your CV doesn’t need your full address. The town where you live will suffice.
Your CV doesn’t need your date of birth
Your CV doesn’t need (this is probably especially important) your NI number or your passport number (this practice is quite common).

A telephone number, e-mail address and town of residence is fine, and prevents anyone from getting hold of your personal details.

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