Employment Scams Are On The Rise with Mike Kiser

Identities are under attack and with few ways to either validate or authenticate, it’s difficult to know whether a company or person you are communicating with is fake or not. Today’s guest is Mike Kiser. Mike Kiser is currently the Director of Strategy and Standards at SailPoint. He speaks regularly at events such as The European Identity Conference and The RSA Conference. He is a member of several standards groups and has presented identity related research at Black Hat and DevCon.

Show Notes:

• [0:46] - Mike shares his current role at SailPoint and what he does to help people protect themselves online.

• [1:48] - As identity has risen in importance, so have job scams.

• [2:44] - The rise is not surprising, as more people look for remote work.

• [3:50] - Generally, employment scams are targeting remote and online applicants.

• [6:10] - Mike describes some of the ways these scams work including receiving fake checks and wording to target those who are looking for side work.

• [8:04] - Fake LinkedIn accounts are on the rise and it is very easy to target specific types of people and build off of common connections.

• [10:01] - In 2019, Mike created a fake profile and he describes the easy infiltration to any organization’s LinkedIn connection.

• [11:47] - There has been an obvious uptick in generic LinkedIn contact in the last few months.

• [15:13] - Business people need to connect, so it can be tricky. Mike explains how to take a close look at new connections.

• [17:13] - With generative AI, communications are even more convincing.

• [18:41] - Falsified job applications are also on the rise.

• [20:33] - Fake identities are more and more in play for different malicious use cases, not just for jobs.

• [22:58] - Mike shares the experience of a family member realizing that they were talking to a scammer.

• [25:08] - We all customize a resume to match a job, but AI is making things much more challenging.

• [27:05] - Applicants and potential new hires will be able to easily outsource and it will become more common.

• [31:22] - The pandemic accelerated the importance of validating identity.

• [33:31] - There is also a unique opportunity for privacy to be changed right now and there is some good potential.

• [36:40] - Multi-factor authentication fatigue is a real problem.

• [39:27] - Eventually, Mike believes all things will shift to QR codes.

• [41:17] - What are the pros and cons of QR codes and how can they change the user experience?

• [42:24] - The job market is going to continually change and we have to learn how to interact with people differently.
  

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