Monster.com Resume Database Hacked, information Stolen

You may not be surprised to know that of all the hacking attempts made on companies, the companies which hold and maintain large databases of information such as those of credit card companies, banks etc are online targets for hackers and opportunistic criminals who attempt to extract information from such databases. One such company which maintains such large databases of information is Monster, the largest and most popular Job portal on the Internet.

At Monster, they keep information of Job applicants and this information includes Name, current address, phone number, information about employers, past employment history(which can give away location of previous addresses) and other confidential information, all very appetizing for Internet Trolls and malicious hackers.

Recent reports coming out from Monster suggests that the Monster resume database was hacked into and information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of job seekers with resumes posted on Monster including MonsterTRAK were stolen and illegally downloaded. Apparently there was a rogue server within the Monster Network which was used for downloading all this information from job seekers.

While the company claims to have conducted its own investigation, it still cannot say for sure which individual job seekers have their information stolen.

How can Hackers use this confidential information?

When your personal information has been stolen from the monster.com resume database, you can be a prime target for a phishing email. You may get an email stating that there are issues with your account and need immediate attention. You might be asked to click on a malicious/spoofed website. Worse yet, you may get a phishing email saying that you have obtained a job with the company you applied for and you need to click on a spoofed site which might ask you to enter more personal information or download some malicious software.

An example of such an email could be one show below. Notice the spelling mistakes

Another of the monster.com phishing email which could ask you to download malicious software

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