Collaboration and community are great, but they come with a hidden cost. The more people begin to automate and share their life, the more they place themselves at risk of fraud, data breaches, and even identity theft.
So how do hackers and shady corporations harvest your data? And what’s the big deal with sharing a little bit about yourself online?
There are tons of ways malicious cybercriminals scoop up your data and there is no shortage of ways for them to profit off of your information. Learn why you shouldn’t give away your data to the web just so easily below:
Social Media
Sharing information on social media became some sort of habit for many of us. Sharing our education, marital, or work information allows hackers to easily track us and figure out what we are about.
A simple background of a photo, a happy birthday post, or some way-to-personal but funny cybersecurity memes can reveal tons of information to someone who may be targeting you or your company.
A couple of posts about where you vacation or sharing your favorite coffee shop’s location where you drink your favorite latte, can make not only hackers but thieves interested in not only your data but also your physical house.
But who cares if somebody gets a hold of your public information? Hackers often gather personal details in order to build a profile they can use to file for loans or even to cover their medical debt. Once a cybercriminal has a hold of your identity information, the sky's the limit. Anything you could do, so can they.
How to limit the risk of oversharing on social media without completely scrapping it for good? Take some time to clean up your friend list by removing anyone you're no longer in contact with or will probably never contact in the future. Create a “close friends” list and set your sharing setting to only close friends. Visit the privacy and share settings of your favorite social apps and limit the information you can share as much as possible (or as much as you're comfortable with).
Photos
If there’s one piece of advice we can give you that you must follow - is to go on your social media profile and delete or hide inappropriate pictures of yourself, or check your privacy settings and make your account private.
You don’t want to miss that job opportunity for crazy pictures you took at a college party back in 2014. Most employers these days will not only read your resume but will check your social media too.
Honestly, you really shouldn’t be posting as many pictures as you probably do. Zero is the absolute best number, but you must make sure to limit the amount of accompanying info you post with each picture. Avoid massive photo dumps, you may not even remember what's in some of the photos. Also, wait a little time after taking the picture to post, no one needs real-time updates of your activities anyway.
Email and Messengers
Handing our email address out left and right might look pretty innocent, however, you have to be more careful. The majority of the accounts are linked to your email address, so you could reset your account in case you forgot your password or have any issues with it.
That said, if your email would be hacked, criminals could have a much easier time accessing your private information online. Be smart where you put your email information and make sure to change your passwords frequently.
Another piece of bad news is that the personal and private messages you send are not so private after all. If they are not end-to-end encrypted, that means the conversations you’ve had can be seen. Use encrypted chat apps!
Don’t write any of your personal information on messengers. Also, don’t send important pictures of your documents like your passport or driving license via any unsecured service. Hackers or anyone who might know your password could get into your account and use that information against you.
Also, every time you receive a file or document, it's good practice to use a file scanner to make sure you don’t invite any malware into your device.
Personal Accounts
Again, on the internet, where everything is intertwined, sharing your accounts online makes hackers or other people, who do not wish you well, harm you easily.
Most of the accounts require your personal information like name, date of birth, and place of your residence. Knowing it, it becomes easier to guess your password and get into your online banking or track your habits and then sell it to the marketing experts.
Only make accounts with trusted companies and only make accounts with organizations you will continue to use often. If you have accessed an account in a while, delete it. Keeping a word doc or list of accounts and the last time you accessed them will help you keep track of what you’ve signed up for and determine when it’s time to cancel. But please don’t put all your passwords in one place, get a reputable password manager for that!
Governments
It’s well known that governments, especially in the United States, collaborate with IT giants to obtain information about their citizens' activities online. While it’s not clear to what extinct governments could spy on any of us, one thing is for sure, if they wish they could do so easily.
There’s not much you can do to mitigate the risk of government surveillance upfront, but it pays off to get educated on your country’s politics. Researching issues and politicians helps with staying informed and voting for pro-privacy politicians can, and will, make a difference in the long run.
Getting involved with hardworking privacy and digital rights organizations is another way to make it more difficult for governments (and corporations for that matter) to sidestep fundamental human rights.
Slow down!
A majority of problems related to oversharing come down to one thing: not thinking before you post or hit send. Slow down and ask yourself if it’s really necessary to share this information? Do you really need that online account? Is 5% off worth it? Would you tell what you're about to type to a stranger on a park bench?
The best habit you and your coworkers or employees can adopt is to just say less online. Obviously, that’s not completely doable all the time, companies need social accounts these days and the more you share about your brand the more people will come to trust and love it, but always think hard before you publish.
Once you let that information run wild and free out into the internet, there’s no getting it back. Be smart out there!
Imagine you’re living in a big house full of people ( family) and everybody has access to almost every room of it.
But, then there is one safe room containing all your important documents and extremely precious assets.
Would you be comfortable in sharing its access to all?
Or would you prefer to keep it safe, closed, and accessible to only you?Chances are even that you will set a monitoring system for it too.
This is exactly why and how privileged user monitoring is needed and works in organizations too.What Do You Mean by Privileged Access?In this process, some have access to the organization’s most crucial data.
This is often the most sensitive and vital information of the organization and needs some monitoring while accessing so as to avoid any unauthorized access and threat.
While data management is a vital part of any business, there are some underlying mistakes that we tend to foresee.
People assume that organisations need to spend a whole lot of money on new and efficient technologies but in the end, it boils down to good data operation and data management.
Read here for full guide to know If you are making any of these mistakes.
Common Data Management Mistakes to Avoid
Several indicators indicate that a company is badly in need of outsourced data management solutions from a reliable, cost effective & skilled data management company.
Look out for the data security threats that can uproot your life in one second and implement the recommended solutions to keep your data safe.
For more information please visit: https://l1n.com/5-top-cybersecurity-threats-their-solutions-for2020/
