Protect IT

For the third week of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let’s review protecting your “IT”.

Your use of connected technology creates a digital footprint. Your footprint is composed of every click, share, text, email, post, GPS coordinate created by you and your devices. The wealth of data points are constantly updated and subsequently stored.

The digital data trail is enticing to cybercriminals.

Why?

The data is worth a lot.

Some of the wealthiest companies in the world survive on the richness of your digital footprint. Google and Facebook generate the overwhelming majority of their incomes through monetizing your digital data trail into a product: a collection of your behaviors.

Advertisers, and, others, are intoxicated by the power of the digital behavior profile. Due to the sheer volume of data that can be collected from connected systems and the relative ease by which the data can be consumed, an incredibly accurate impression of you can be rendered.

How will you vote? What will you eat? What will you buy? What do you value?

These questions and so many more can be pondered through a review of your digital footprint.

So, to protect yourself from being victimized, you must appreciate the power of the collected data points. Through appreciation of the power of your data, it’s easier to understand the importance of securing and managing your digital footprint.

Clearly, social media is a key aspect of your digital life. The tools are designed to engage its users with phenomenal precision. Tales of those who have become obsessed and overwhelmed by constant social media interactions are easy to find. Are you overly-involved in social media? How often do you “peak” at your social stream, your stories, your updates, your threads? If the thought of losing connectivity to the tools makes you feel anxious, perhaps reflecting on the volume of personal data harvested from each use will foster some reconsideration of your screen time.

How do you avoid the potential negatives associated with a large presence on social media?

Limit what you post.

I’ve presented cybersecurity seminars for nearly twenty years. The guidance rarely changes; the tools differ, but, the message remains the same: the more you post, the greater your exposure.

What appear to be seemingly random details are data points that cybercriminals need to target you, or perhaps, members of your family. And, unfortunately, the possibility for poor interaction isn’t limited to the cyberworld. Real world confrontation occurs as the result of over-sharing.

One of the exercises that we employed when social media emerged was a simple illustration. As I began my discussion about over-sharing, in particular, the concerns related to presenting lots of personal information, one of my colleagues would approach a participant in the crowd. As the person was approached, a simple question was posed, “Do you mind if I take your photo?”

The startled attendee typically stared back in disbelief. A follow-up narrative was offered, “I’d like to keep the photo with me. What’s your name and address?”

Clearly, each time, the crowd member panicked.

However, the illustration was as clear then as now. If you wouldn’t share with a complete stranger in person, why would you do so online?

Recently, an online stalker managed to review hundreds of images posted to social media by a popular social media influencer. The internet celebrity never divulged her address and disabled location services on her various platforms. However, due to the extraordinary amount of detail captured in the thousands of photos, the stalker was able to see reflections in the pupils of the eyes and other landmarks in the background of the photos. He successful constructed a map of the internet celebrity’s frequently-visited locations and observed a routine. He attacked her – not online, but in the real world.

It’s obvious that you should be careful when posting sensitive personal information – who would post a social security number, password or account number to social media? However, most willingly post thousands of photos, locations, and other seemingly unimportant tidbits about our private lives.

Disable locations services. Pay attention to what you post, in particular the content of your photos.

Another component of your digital footprint is your apps. Take a quick look at your mobile device. How many pages of apps do you have?

Do you use all of them? What are they doing?

Are some of the apps abusing access to your mobile device? Are they gathering your personal information without your knowledge and putting your privacy at risk?

Sadly, too many times, the answer is yes.

Review your apps and discard those that aren’t being used frequently. If an app requests a privilege that doesn’t make any sense, refuse the request.

I downloaded a free app recently. The app was highly-rated and provided by a reputable company. Upon setup, my mobile device alerted me that the notetaking app requested access to my contacts and my camera.

No. I refused the requests and deleted the app. I could imagine some circumstances where such access might be handy; however, the request made me uncomfortable, so, I sought a different app.

Saying “no” to app privilege requests is a good thing. Don’t feel pressured to take the defaults.

Lastly, in order to protect your IT, be cautious, perhaps paranoid, of public wireless internet.

Many of those services are horribly managed and riddled with security deficiencies. If you can gain access to a secured hotspot, that makes your situation a bit better. However, avoid conducting any sensitive personal activities while using these wide-open network services. As an example, don’t log into your bank through the free WiFi at your favorite fast food restaurant. Use the service, but, only for casual activities.

Be safe.