How to Protect Your Identity on Social Media

https://www.identityprotectionreview.com/articles/how-to-protect-your-identity-on-social-media

For most of us, not a day goes by where we don’t use our favorite social media platforms, connecting with friends, family, groups and work colleagues. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn users collectively create a gargantuan worldwide online social scene. And every user has one major thing in common: They, like you, share tons of information.

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When social media first hit the internet, the types of information we could share was fairly limited, comprising mainly of status updates, pictures, and videos. Social media technology quickly advanced in the years that followed, however, and new features began popping up, with slick, responsive smartphone integration being the game-changer.

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Today, we put it all out there on social media, tagging friends, our locations, posting live videos, and listing our education and work histories, interests, and hobbies, with businesses/organizations creating pages and adverts to recruit staff and appeal to students. But, with identity theft often making the headlines, is it really a good thing to share so much of ourselves on social media?

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Well, sharing isn’t the chief problem here. In fact, sharing is a good, positive aspect of online living, allowing us to connect and communicate ideas fast and conveniently. What can be a major security issue on social media, however, is over-sharing, whether due to ignorance (about who might be snooping on us) or simply being out of touch with online safety.

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So if it’s more specifically WHAT you share that could wind up hurting you, what are the best practices for ensuring your identity stays as safe as possible while using social media? First of all, try to think of all the most personal, sensitive information about you – including your family and business – that you’d never want a stranger to know about. Now ask yourself why there would ever be a need to share it publicly via social media?

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For instance, while it’s perfectly fine to tell a friend detail about yourself – like your birthday, phone number, address, and place of work/study – sharing that kind of personal information in your online profile is much riskier. Chances are, people closest to you in life already know enough, so try to keep personally identifying information offline. For example, you could generalize your geographical location by listing just your state.

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Furthermore, while telling a friend that you’re going on vacation is perfectly fine, posting this information online isn’t a smart idea. If you send a post on your departure date, you’re telling your friends that your house is now vacant. Even if you implicitly trust everyone in your ‘accepted’ social media circle, consider the networking, sharing nature of social media and how easy it is to lose control of what we put out there.

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So naturally the same goes for posting holiday snaps and location tags. There’s no law against it, and hey, it feels great to tell the world you’re on a sun-kissed beach, but here’s your post’s unintended subtext: “Hey guys, I’m still out the country and nobody’s home.” On the topic of photo uploads in general, be aware of the ‘other stuff’, like background items such as bank statements or confidential work documents.

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If you value your privacy on Facebook and Twitter, it’s definitely worth customizing your social media Privacy Settings. Toggling specific options can really help tighten down on security, like limiting what kind of audience can view your posts and how much strangers/yet-to-be-accepted friends can see on your profile/posts.

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It may have once been cool to brag about your Facebook friend count, but now it’s much wiser to forget the number and instead focus on building a list consisting of only those you trust and or have (preferably) met. Keep an eye on your accepted friends list and steer clear of random ‘who-the-heck-are-you?’ requests.

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Pick usernames that don’t reveal sensitive information (such as your birthday and location), strong passwords to protect your accounts, and be vigilant when it comes to spotting bogus advertisements and posts built by cyber ‘phishing’ scammers. Finally, ensure your computer has up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware suites for fundamental protection, and always remember to logout from social media accounts

Phishing, Phone and Email Scams; How to Keep your Identity Protected

https://www.identityprotectionreview.com/articles/how-to-protect-your-identity-on-social-media

Modern life has afforded us unprecedented conveniences. But it’s also opened the door to deceptive criminality schemes which frequent global headlines. Fraudsters can attack both off and online, hiding behind the façade of phony emails, letters, telephone calls, text messages and emails.

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These crimes, known as ‘phishing’, pose an ominous modern world threat. They keep us on our toes, questioning what we see and hear. Is this person really calling from my bank? Could this email attachment be a virus? Will that link lead to a bogus website?

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The big question: How can you be sure what is and isn’t a trusted source? Cyber criminals, usually out to steal personally identifiable information for the purpose of exploiting our wealth and identities, deserve our attention. After all, it can take just a click to get snared.

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So how can we stay clear of these shadowy, malicious forces? How can we stay one step ahead, ensuring we don’t get duped into sharing our data and downloading viruses? For starters, since fraudsters are always coming up with new guises to lure victims, it’s wise to keep up to date with scams by following tech news reports.

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While there are nuances to each form of phishing, each usually shares common characteristics. It’s imperative to remember that a bank – or any reputable organization – will never, ever ask for your login details (username, password) or any sensitive information, by email, text message or phone.

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If you’re contacted with such a request, treat it as highly suspicious and end the call or disregard/delete the email/text message. The next thing to look out for is the ‘alarm-bell-ringing’ component, designed to frazzle your mind and encourage you to abandon your better judgement.

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A prime example of this would be being asked, upon receiving a call from your ‘bank’, to confirm your online logins in order to recover your ‘stolen’ savings. The goal of the caller is to create a situation of extreme urgency, forcing you to panic and become desperate to remedy the ‘situation’.

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Phishing scams involving this ‘ticking clock’ could also come from a number of other (hoax) services, again urging you to act fast to save something highly valuable. For instance, an email might say your account will be deleted or your identity compromised if you don’t comply.

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But what if you’re unsure about, say, a call from your bank? Well, you could do worse than telling them you’re busy and can’t talk. You could then directly contact your bank using a listed number on their official website. Now, convinced of the agent’s legitimacy, you can confirm whether there was ever an issue. This ‘reassuring practice’ can also be applied to dubious emails and texts.

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With phishing emails, vigilance is paramount. Let’s suppose a goods service notifies you that a $200 order has been placed and that you need to click a ‘cancel’ link if you suspect an error. Naturally, you’re suspicious since you haven’t made any recent purchases.

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Scam emails can be more deceptive, true, but there are proven ways to see through many ruses. Firstly, forget the technical and listen to your gut - is it telling you something is just off? Now pay closer attention to the email’s wording. How’s the grammar, spelling, sentence structure? Does it ‘feel’ like a professional email from a trusted source? ‘Dear (Real Name)’ or just ‘Dear Customer’?

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Inspect the sender’s email address, noting anything odd. For example, while orders@onlineshopping.com sounds plausible enough, orders@onlineshopping12.com raises suspicion. You could also refer back to old (trusted) emails from the goods company and compare sender address.

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In a different scenario, let’s say you receive a work email that asks you to open a report from an attachment, but something feels awry. Since it’s possible someone could have hacked your colleague’s email account, you’ve reason enough to tread with caution. To be safe, why not call your colleague to confirm the email was really from them?

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Disaster can usually be diverted by simply taking a step back and thinking before you respond to a potential phishing scam. Finally, be sure to regularly monitor you bank accounts for suspicious activity, and ensure that you change your passwords, contact your bank, credit card companies and the authorities if you suspect you’ve become a victim of phishing.

Federal Trade Commission

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/protect-your-personal-information-and-data

Protect Your Personal Information and Data

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The internet has been called the information superhighway. But with scammers, hackers, and other bad guys trying to steal your personal information online, it’s a good idea to know how to lock down your devices, network, and information. That way, your passwords, Social Security number, or account numbers don’t go speeding along the superhighway to the scammers.

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• Secure Your Devices

• Secure Your Accounts

• Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

• Protect Your Home Network

• Protect Yourself While on Wi-Fi

• Report Identity Theft

Secure Your Devices

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Keep your security software, internet browser, and operating system up to date.

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Criminals look for weak points to exploit before the software companies can fix them. But updating your software regularly — as soon as possible when a newer version comes out — helps make sure you have critical patches and protections against security threats.

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For information on how to update your security software, operating system and internet browsers and apps, go to the developer’s website. They usually have a way to sign up for email updates or set them up to update automatically. Don’t ignore reminders to make updates. You don’t want to leave a door open so hackers can get your information.

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Be sure to update:

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• Security software. Your antivirus or firewall programs must be up to date to work, whether they came pre-installed, or you loaded them onto your device.

• Operating system software. This could be Windows, Apple OS, or Chrome, for example.

• Internet browsers and apps. Developers often provide updates to address security issues, to fix bugs, or add new features.

Secure Your Accounts

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Once your computer, tablet, and phone are secure, next take steps to protect your accounts — particularly those with personal information, like your bank, email, and social media accounts.

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Create and use strong passwords

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That means at least 12 characters. Making a password longer is generally the easiest way to increase its strength. Consider using a passphrase of random words so that your password is more memorable but avoid using common words or phrases. For more tips, check out this Password Checklist.

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Use multi-factor authentication

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Some accounts offer extra security by requiring two or more credentials to log in to your account. This is called multi-factor authentication. These additional credentials fall into two categories:

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• Something you have, like a passcode you get via an authentication app or a security key.

• Something you are, like a scan of your fingerprint, your retina, or your face.

Multi-factor authentication makes it harder for scammers to log in to your accounts if they do get your username and password.

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Choose security questions only you know the answer to

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Many security questions ask for answers to information available in public records or online. So, when you can, avoid questions like your zip code, mother’s maiden name, and birthplace. And avoid using questions with a limited number of responses that attackers can easily guess — like the color of your first car. You can even put in random answers to make guessing more difficult. If you do that, though, you’ll have to remember the answers you use.

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Back up your data to protect it. Backing up your data means making an extra copy of all your files. That way, if something happens — say a virus, your device crashes, or you’re hacked — you still have your files. It’s important to do it once a week so you don’t lose important data, like your photos, documents, and files. If you do need to restore a backup, it will only be as current as the last time you backed up.

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Here are two options, and a few things to consider when choosing how to back up your files.

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• Save your files in the cloud. There are many cloud storage services that let you save files and data online. You may be familiar with some, like Google Drive, Evernote, Dropbox, OneDrive, or iCloud, but there are many others out there. Many of these services come with some free storage space, and you can pay for more storage. When you save your information in the cloud, you’re trusting someone else to keep that information safe. If you’re thinking about using cloud storage, find out what level of privacy or security the different services offer.

• Save your files to an external storage device. A USB flash drive is an affordable option that offers a moderate amount of storage. Another option is an external hard drive. It might cost a little more than a USB drive, but it can give you more storage capacity, transfer data faster, and be more reliable. You can decide which files or folders to back up, and you may be able to schedule automatic backups.

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Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

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Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs can give you access to free music and videos, but they come with risks. For example:

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• strangers might be able to see and share your personal files

• the program might share files and folders you didn’t plan on sharing

• you might unknowingly download malware, pirated or copyrighted material, or pornography.

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If you decide to use a peer-to-peer program, use your security software to scan any files before you open them, and before you play any downloaded files. Avoid any peer-to-peer program that asks you to disable or change the settings of your firewall. Disabling or changing these settings could weaken your computer’s security.

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Protect Your Home Network

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One important way to protect your information is to protect your network at home. Think of your router as the connecting point between your devices and the internet. If malware gets onto any of your connected devices, it can spread to the other devices connected to your network. Your devices, accounts, and whole network are only as secure as your router.

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See this article on Securing Your Home Network to learn how to quickly make your router and your network more secure.

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Protect Yourself While on Wi-Fi

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You can control how secure your home network is — but you can’t do the same for public Wi-Fi. It’s always best to assume it’s not secure.

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The easiest solution? Save your online shopping, banking, and other personal transactions for when you’re on your home network. Or use your mobile data, as that data is typically encrypted.

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If you do use public Wi-Fi, read more about protecting your personal information while you’re online in public.

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Report Identity Theft

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If you think someone has gotten into your accounts or has your personal information, visit IdentityTheft.gov. There, you’ll get steps to take to find out if your identity has been misused, and how to report and recover from identity theft.

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