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Russia is blocking LinkedIn
While LinkedIn is still waiting for the ink to dry on Microsoft's $26.2 billion deal, the Russian government is gearing up to ban the professional networking site altogether. As the New York Times reports, a local court in Moscow has ruled that LinkedIn is not in compliance with with the country's data protection rules. The company will be blocked from operating in Russia starting Thursday, but the company can still appeal the court's decision.
Facebook wants a piece of LinkedIn's job recruiting features
After seeing businesses and employers post ad hoc job openings on their Facebook pages, the massive social network is finally experimenting with job recruitment tools in earnest. As TechCrunch reports today, Facebook is testing out a new "Jobs" tab for business pages alongside an "Apply Now" button for applicants that will start filling out a job application with information from the user's Facebook profile.
Someone really wants 'No Man's Sky' developers to apologize
The internet hivemind's vile side was at it again this morning. This time, by apparently hacking the Twitter, Linkedin and email accounts of No Man's Sky developer Hello Games. Buckle up because this gets messy. "No Man's Sky was a mistake." Following an extended period of silence from the developer, that (now deleted) tweet went out earlier today. Thinking something was afoot, Kotaku reached out to the developer via email and was told that, "No, the tweet was not a hack, but rather a disgruntled employee. The email that we sent however was official." Except the publication had received no prior emails.
Russian arrested over giant LinkedIn password hack
You might not be happy that a hacker swiped millions of LinkedIn passwords back in 2012, but it sounds like you might soon get some justice. Czech police acting on behalf of the FBI and Interpol say they have arrested a Russian citizen suspected of compromising both LinkedIn and other US targets. Officials quietly caught the unnamed man in Prague on October 5th, but are only confirming the bust now for "tactical reasons." A court will decide whether or not the alleged hacker faces extradition to the US.
LinkedIn can quietly tell headhunters you want a new job
Let's say you're not happy with the way you've been treated at work, but your objections have fallen on deaf ears. If you start hunting around for another job, it's all too easy for that information to leak back to your current employer. That's why LinkedIn has launched Open Candidates, a service that enables would-be job-switchers to signal recruiters that they're looking for an escape route.
Salesforce urges EU to block Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn
When Microsoft announced they'd won the bidding war for LinkedIn with a colossal $26.2 billion offer, it seemed, well, about as interesting as corporate enterprise acquisitions sound. Yet it's a shrewd move for both: Integrating a business-oriented social network into Outlook or Windows would be promising for the software giant, while LinkedIn gets stability under its new corporate umbrella. But not everyone is happy about the deal: Salesforce is urging the European Union to block it, claiming the union would be anticompetitive.
LinkedIn Learning arrives to build out your 'skills' section
With the ink still drying on Microsoft's purchase of LinkedIn, the social network everyone loves to hate is now looking to break into the online education with today's launch of LinkedIn Learning. After all, what could be better for your career than adding a couple new skills and areas of expertise to your online resumé?
Google and other tech titans pledge to help refugees
Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and other big tech corporations have joined hands with the White House to help refugees across the globe. They were among the members of the private sector that answered the president's Call to Action back in June. Now, the administration has published the complete list of participants, along with a short description of what they're doing for the cause. Google has promised to fund and lend its technical expertise to non-government orgs providing free education to 10,000 out-of-school Lebanese kids. If you'll recall, the big G also donated $5.3 million worth of Chromebooks to European refugees earlier this year.
LinkedIn debuts 'influencer' videos for interview tips and more
Video has become a big part of the business strategy for social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. Now, LinkedIn is following a similar path by letting certain people share original videos on its platform. The new tool will only be available to over 500 "influencers" on LinkedIn, someone like the CEO or co-founder of a company. By letting you see these 30-second videos on your feed, LinkedIn says it hopes users can engage on a conversation about topics they're interested in, such as getting advice on how to get hired for a job.
Google's futuristic campus closer to reality after land deal
In a surprising real estate move for two Silicon Valley giants, Google and LinkedIn just traded nearly 3.5 million square feet of existing office buildings and future development space in Mountain View, California. As Silicon Valley Business Journal reports today, exactly zero dollars changed hands in the deal, but the "grand bargain" will clear a path for Google's futuristic new campus design.
Dating app Bumble is putting networking ahead of romance
Bumble, a swipe-based dating app in the same vein of Tinder, is looking to offer its users a very different way to network.
Why Microsoft is the best home for LinkedIn
The news of Microsoft purchasing LinkedIn for a whopping $26.2 billion almost feels like a gag from HBO's Silicon Valley. Two companies, each often mocked for being boring in their own way, join together to become a sort of Voltron of dull enterprise synergy. The Clippy/LinkedIn invite jokes pretty much write themselves. Yet dig a little deeper and it's easy to see why the two companies decided to team up. Microsoft has plenty of uses for a robust business social network, and LinkedIn has little room to grow on its own. And there's one big reason this acquisition won't go the way of Microsoft's Nokia deal: Satya Nadella.
Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion
You probably didn't expect your week to start this way: Microsoft has acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The company plans to integrate the career-oriented social network into many of its apps and services, including Office, Skype and Cortana. You'd get the details of the person you're meeting for a business deal, for example, or get help from an expert when you're working on an Office 365 project. Microsoft is vowing to maintain LinkedIn's overall independence, including the role of CEO Jeff Weiner, and hopes to close the deal sometime in 2016.
Mark Zuckerberg's lesser-known social accounts get compromised
Mark Zuckerberg's biggest social network presence is undoubtedly on Facebook, but he has other accounts, too -- and he's learning the hard way that those accounts are just as sensitive. Hackers appear to have briefly compromised Zuck's Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter accounts, in some cases defacing them for the sake of bragging rights. It's not certain that they have his personal email address, but that would make sense if it's a common thread between the accounts. It's alternately possible that LinkedIn's 2012 password breach is at fault.
Millions of LinkedIn passwords stolen in 2012 surface online
You've probably already forgotten that LinkedIn was hacked back in 2012, but you could still be affected by that four-year-old security breach. According to Motherboard, someone going by the name "Peace" is selling (if he hasn't sold them yet) 117 million LinkedIn username and password combos on a dark web marketplace for 5 Bitcoins or around $2,300. When the attack was first discovered, only 6.5 million users' details were leaked -- this dump reveals that the breach was much, much bigger. In fact, a hacked data search engine told Motherboard that the database Peace listed contains 167 million accounts. It's just that only 117 million have both usernames and passwords.
LinkedIn reportedly looking to rival Facebook's Instant Articles
LinkedIn is said to be considering an Instant Articles feature of its own, BuzzFeed News reports. According to the publication, which cites sources familiar with the matter, LinkedIn recently started floating this idea to "various" publishers, inspired by what Facebook is doing in the space. For the unaware, Instant Articles are links to stories that you can read within Facebook's app, elimitating the need to visit a third-party site -- such as The New York Times, BuzzFeed and other news outlets.
LinkedIn's new app for students tries to make job-hunting easier
There's been a lot of talk in recent years about how hard it is for recent college graduates to find gainful employment. LinkedIn has become a major source for job hunting and networking, but it's more focused on current professionals rather than those just entering the workforce. The company's changing that a bit with the new LinkedIn Students app for iOS and Android. It essentially pulls in all the data in the LinkedIn network and focuses it on those soon to be leaving college to help them find positions that make sense given their backgrounds.
Big tech companies want to make email more secure
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Comcast and LinkedIn have joined forces to create a new email mechanism that makes sure the messages you send are encrypted. In the proposal they've submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force, these tech titans called their creation SMTP Strict Transport Security (SMTP STS). See, the underlying technology behind email has remained largely unchanged since it first became available. An encryption system was introduced some time ago -- and big email providers like Gmail do use it -- but it's susceptible to man-in-the-middle attacks.
LinkedIn's revamped job listings are all about you
LinkedIn is revamping its job listings pages with new sections geared towards giving you more information on whether a position is right for you. Rather than simply listing a job description and similar postings, the new pages are personalized based on your LinkedIn profile.
LinkedIn promises to send only the messages you'd want to read
LinkedIn is working on an email, text and push notifications platform called Air Traffic Controller (ATC), perhaps in an effort to avoid losing more money to settle another lawsuit. The social network for professionals was notorious for spamming members until those who've had enough filed a class-action suit in California. To settle the case, LinkedIn agreed to pay select members $13 million, and it also cut back on notifications to the point that it's now sending 50 percent fewer emails than before, or so it claims in ATC's announcement post. The new platform's expected to rein in notifications even further by using algorithms to guess the kind of emails -- and even texts, if you signed up for those for some reason -- you'd actually want to get.
