5 CV mistakes that leave jobseekers vulnerable to hacking

Have you ever considered the information you have on your CV could be responsible for leaving you vulnerable to information hackers?

The fact your CV is sitting on a job board is incriminating enough if your employer sees it but the details included could be useful to those with unscrupulous motives.

A recent Palmer McCarthy study showed that the majority of CVs we receive include unnecessary information

This includes:

1. full name  - a recruiter does not need to know your middle name
2. postal address - post codes are not necessary- simply the town and county you live in
3. date of birth - should not be used in considering applications
4. place of birth- no-one needs to know – the right to work in UK is suffice
5. National Insurance (NI) number- not needed until after interview

** All of these aren't actually requirements when applying for a job and you should be wary of anybody asking for those details before an offer of employment is made.

Alan Corcoran, Director at Palmer McCarthy advises jobseekers should focus on skills, experience and other factors that make you a suitable candidate, rather than including incriminating personal information that could be stolen by a third party.

He adds: “Personal details like your date or place of birth and your national insurance number are completely unnecessary and we’d strongly advise that you don’t give this type of information out.

As part of our GDPR compliance Palmer McCarthy are actually removing unnecessary information that has been provided on CVs

We would suggest you immediately review your CV if it currently sits on any job-boards and before submitting to any more employers or agencies with a view to removing any information that is not absolutely necessary.

With this in mind the governmental campaign Cyber Aware has issued the following five tips for staying more secure online:

1. Use strong and separate passwords for email accounts and other accounts
2. Download the latest software and app updates
3. Activate two step authentication on your email
4. Use password managers to store passwords for less important accounts
5. Don’t click on suspicious links.