Is LinkedIn 100% Secure?

"Hi Joanne
I just received an invitation to connect on Linkedln. Is is 100% secure? I did join but then had a friend challenge me on the security of it and said to leave him out? I saw your name in there also. Can you give me your opinion? I have avoided Twitter, Facebook and one other for security reasons."

As I tell my students, anyone with the motivation, expertise, resources, time, and social engineering can make you a target if you are connected to the Internet. I think you have to consider the costs and benefits of joining LinkedIn.

As far as I know, there are no means of identification other than email address. If some malicious person wanted access to your list of contacts, perhaps a competitor, he/she could create a hotmail or Gmail account, masquerading as someone you personally know. For instance, they could create an email account, joannewagner@gmail.com, and use it to set up a LinkedIn profile. They would use this account to masquerade as me and invite you to connect up. You would falsely assume you were connecting to me. Once connected, the malicious person, and not me, would have access to your list of contacts. Some of our mutual friends may also decide to ask me to connect to them, giving that imposter even more contacts.

Other than identity theft, I suppose privacy is an issue with LinkedIn. Since I don’t keep any personal id or financial information on my profile, I don’t concern myself so much with it. I think the benefits outweigh my concern for privacy. I really think LinkedIn is great and has so much to offer. I haven't been in it for a very long time but would definitely recommend it as a way to get yourself connected.

I hope this helps!