Have you ever tried to Google yourself? The internet and social media are an integral part of most of our lives, both personally and professionally. Whether we’re content creators or content consumers our personal data is precious. Just about every contact we make personally with companies and public sector organisations is done over the internet now. It’s becoming increasingly tricky to avoid sharing personal information online, even when well-versed in IT security. Data security is at the core of what we do here at Cosurica, so of course we’ve tried to Google ourselves. You should too!
Your online presence is a valuable asset, but not just to you! Sharing any personal information comes with significant risk. So what should you do to limit the risk? As a first step you should find out what info is available about you online, so…
Just Google Yourself!
Simply Google your name. If you’ve got a fairly common name, include your middle name(s) too. You’ll probably get pages of results unless you have a very unusual name, so you may have to dig deep to find info about you. Taking the time to do it is worth it. Even if you think your the most careful internet user you may still find publicly available information about yourself that you weren’t expecting, such as your phone number, email address, or home address.
Some information is available online through government agencies, while other information is posted by data brokers. A data broker is an individual or company specialising in collecting personal data, which they sell or licence to third parties for various uses. Their sources may include census and electoral records, social networking sites, court reports and purchase histories. The information from data brokers could be used in background checks used by employers and housing organisations. Access to it could also be purchased by criminals, unless the data brokers are conscientious about checking who they are selling info to.
Cybercriminals’ Scams
Cybercriminals can and do use your public information in phishing attacks to try and scam you. They may use specific details, such as your first name, phone number, home address etc, to give an air of authenticity to their phishing attacks. Cybercriminals could use your publicly available home or work address for a delivery scam.
If you post details about your family, pets, favourite holiday destinations, significant family events etc. on social media you are handing cybercriminals an insight into what your account passwords might be (unless you follow guidance on creating unique strong passwords for each of your online accounts religiously, of course ;-)) More on that later.
What Can I Do to Stay Safe?
Once your personal info is out there in the public domain (i.e. all over the internet) it’s very difficult to get rid of it. Lock the barn door before the horse bolts!
Follow the tips below to stay safe online:
- Be careful about anything you post online, even if you think only your friends and family can see it. Cybercriminals could use this information in a phishing attack. If criminals have hijacked one of your friend’s or family member’s accounts in order to access their contacts list, they will be able to see what you’ve posted.
- Analyse your online presence often and remove information from your social media profiles that you don’t want cybercriminals to be able to use against you.
- Many websites have security options that can easily be overlooked. Review and edit your privacy settings to protect your information.
- It’s also worth checking out Have I Been Pwned: Check if your email address has been exposed in a data breach
- Read here about the rationale behind the NCSC’s advice to use 3 random words when creating passwords for your online accounts.
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