The Hidden Dangers of Your Digital Footprint: What Hackers Can Learn About You
Every year, millions are victims of identity theft; 14.4 million people in the U.S. in 2018 alone. The sheer volume of victims adds a sense of urgency to the importance of understanding the term digital footprint, which is defined as the trail, or "footprint,” of data you create while on the internet.
There are two main types of digital footprints: passive and active. Your passive digital footprint can be stored without you realizing it, and it consists of data you give out without intending to. Active digital footprints are anything you put on the internet on purpose. Knowing this is important to keep privacy and maintain cybersecurity. Everything on the internet can be used as a piece that will eventually create a much larger picture, which will summarize my next few sentences: never share too much information about yourself online, and always know what can be against you.
Understanding Your Digital Footprint
A digital footprint is the trail, or "footprint," that users, leave behind from their Internet usage. But, there are two different types of digital footprints: active and passive. An active digital footprint is when a specific user leaves data online, generally on purpose (i.e., posting to social media, commenting on blogs, filling out electronic forms, etc.). On the other hand, a passive digital footprint is when a user leaves data behind, but not with the user's help. That is to say, activities that a user partakes in online may be recorded, tracked, or logged, often through tracking cookies, users' Internet addresses (IP addresses), etc., and is typically done, unbeknownst to users, without their direction.
Everyone should know about their digital footprint for a few reasons. For obvious reasons that deal with online security or the overall privacy of data, people should be aware that any interaction that they have with the online-and-digital world, as a whole, can backfire on them in a way that they reveal too much about their personal lives online. In reality, anyone--including hackers, scammers, or just any, overall, creepers--can find others' information online unless those who are being sought after take extra measures to ensure the safety of their personal lives through the usage of Internet privacy options. People should also know about their digital footprint to ensure that their online appearance is up-to-par with others around them. Many workplaces, scholarships, colleges, and other post-high school institutions usually background check the people they allow in to join.
How Hackers Exploit Digital Footprints
There are numerous ways hackers gather data, with some of the most common datasets being scraped from social media, websites, and even online transactions.
Social media is a goldmine of data that hackers use to glean personal information about a user's location, interests, and who they're friends with. This data can also be collected en masse, making it easy to build profiles for targeted phishing attacks. Like many public APIs, these platforms are also easily scraped with automated scripts.
Websites often contain a lot of vulnerabilities, which make it easy to gather data from them via common methods of attack such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting. Similar to social media, websites contain personal data. But unlike them, websites also contain information that could include users' emails, passwords, and credit card information.
Online transactions also contain a lot of personal data and are sometimes sent from users' devices without any encryption at all, leaving the communication susceptible to being intercepted.
The Risks of a Compromised Digital Footprint
Identity theft is a type of fraud that involves using someone else's personal information, such as their Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers, without their consent. This can cause people to lose a lot of money, as well as lower their credit scores. It may take them a long time to convince businesses that they are innocent—and all that time, their finances and credit will not be completely safe.
In addition to standard theft, people’s digital version of themselves (their digital footprint) could also be at risk of two alternative cyber threats: phishing and social engineering. Phishing is when attackers pose as a trusted source via email or another form of written communication to try to trick users into giving up sensitive information; social engineering is the general practice of tricking people into revealing sensitive information (phishing can be viewed as a subset of this). Attackers may also utilize psychological principles to manipulate people into revealing information.
The attack's aftermath is often a damaged reputation (of an individual or of a company), emotional distress and feelings of violation, stolen money, and—not just for companies, but for individuals, too—the long time it takes (it could be years) to recover one's identity and the mental effects thereof, to return ("bounce back") to a state of normalcy.
Protecting Your Digital Footprint
Living in the digital age has made maintaining privacy a little more tricky, and a lot more important. Therefore, you should use a strong, distinct password for your account(s). A good password includes a mix of lower-case letters, upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols. You should also use a password manager to help you store and generate virtually unguessable passwords. This way, you won't have to remember your passwords yourself, and every password can be unique.
Enabling two-factor authentication is a good idea as well. If you use TFA on your account, you will have to enter not only your password (factor 1) but also a TOTP (time-based one-time password; factor 2). So, even if someone is able to obtain or guess your password, they would have to enter a six-digit code, which will be sent to you via text or an authentication app installed on your smart device. This adds an additional physical layer of security to your account(s).
Add an additional layer of security to your internet and web browsing activity through the use of a software cybersecurity such as an antivirus, and a host-based firewall, and a VPN (virtual private networks; see Figure 7-1). For instance, the use of a VPN can protect you from hackers who are trying to steal or snoop on your private data by encrypting your internet connection.
The veil of encryption hides and disguises your IP address while you are on the internet; essentially, keeping you protected while you are potentially connected to a public untrusted wireless network (like the one at Starbucks), surfing on websites with cookies and ad trackers, sending emails, and logging into your social media account.
The Role of Data Privacy Regulations
Data privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S. are fundamental to the protection of your digital footprint.
The GDPR and the CCPA provide a regulatory approach to your personal data diet. They regulate people and companies who choose to use your data—they must adhere to this diet.
They’ve also given rights akin to GDPR-based human rights for the 40 million who make up the population of California.
As these sectors turn over each year, the world gets healthier. Each month, as countries become GDPR compliant, the global data abuse health problem diminishes.
So, get on your privacy diet. As most folks begin their dieting effort, it starts with a promise.
Our personal lives, private data, and almost any other online activities create a digital footprint. This story about you could be your social media posts or something a little more malicious. Learning about this potential problem will help you better understand a few areas where you must be more concerned about your data and how it is used online.
Having better personal security online starts with taking several additional steps to help protect your identity. Some of these changes could be changing your social media posts, reevaluating your privacy settings, and using a stronger, more elaborate set of passwords with multiple characters and variables.
It's also important to be vigilant. The list of requirements is also much longer but also necessary to maintain security online. Some of your initial protective steps can generally start with the right information. The likelihood of a malicious or harmful secondary data breach is then also slightly lower.