KUALA LUMPUR: Sharing resumes on social media to seek industrial training placements could expose higher education students to the risk of personal data misuse, especially when personal details such as home addresses and telephone numbers are publicly disclosed.
Public Facebook groups are among the platforms identified as posing potential risks, as their open-access settings allow anyone to locate them, view publicly available membership information and browse shared content without joining.
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology deputy dean (Academic and International) Associate Professor Dr Zubaile Abdullah warned that publicly sharing resumes could expose students’ personal information to cybercriminals, as the documents could be accessed by anyone, not just prospective employers.
He said personal information uploaded online could be copied, stored and shared with third parties without the owner’s knowledge, even after the original post had been deleted.
“What is even more worrying is that criminals can use information such as a person’s full name, educational institution and academic background to devise more convincing scams by exploiting the personal details they have obtained,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
Zubaile, who is also a senior researcher at UTHM’s Centre for Cybersecurity and Data Intelligence, said one of the main threats involved fraudulent job or industrial training offers, with scammers posing as company representatives or human resources personnel to solicit registration fees, training deposits or bank account details.
He said cybercriminals could also exploit information contained in resumes to launch social engineering and phishing attacks through fraudulent emails or WhatsApp messages designed to steal passwords or install malware on students’ devices.
As a precaution, he recommended that students prepare two versions of their resumes — a brief version for sharing on social media and a complete version for applications through trusted job portals such as JobStreet or Glassdoor.
Zubaile said publicly shared resumes should contain only essential information, including students’ names, fields of study, skills, experience and the types of jobs or industrial training placements sought, while excluding sensitive details such as full residential addresses, identity card numbers and dates of birth.
He advised students to submit more detailed personal documents only to prospective employers whose identities had been verified through official email addresses or secure application channels.
Zubaile also said higher education institutions should establish clear guidelines on resume sharing and personal data protection, particularly for students preparing for industrial training or participating in career development programmes.
He said career development programmes linking students with industry partners through resume-writing workshops, mock interviews and job interview opportunities should be expanded to all higher education institutions to provide safer and more structured access to industrial training placements.
Meanwhile, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Faculty of Information Science and Technology Professor Dr Zarina Shukur said publicly sharing personal information could expose students to financial scams and disrupt their personal lives.
“Students must be aware of scammers who may seek financial gain or attempt to intrude into their personal lives, including those posing as prospective employers with malicious intentions,” she said.
Zarina said disclosing residential addresses could put students’ households at risk, while the personal information of lecturers listed as references in resumes could also be misused.
She therefore urged students to identify prospective employers and showcase their skills through professional platforms such as LinkedIn, Upwork and GitHub, rather than indiscriminately sharing personal information on social media. -BERNAMA
