All Internet users have a digital tattoo or shadow representing the amount of personal information that can easily be found through search engines, which can, if not controlled, lay them wide open to the cybercriminals. Major international events like the soccer World Cup have been shown to increase the danger.
A digital tattoo can contain personal photographs or private details such as postcodes and phone numbers – some people have gone as far to admit that they’ve put their bank details online and even uploaded their passport numbers. Unfortunately, a digital tattoo can be just as difficult to remove as that garish memento of a night of debauchery.
Apart from the impact photos and comments can have on your reputation, personal identity details can potentially give cybercriminals an easy route to crack passwords and hijack accounts and use these to send out spam or malware for their own financial gain.
However, the good news is that keeping personal information private is just a matter of common sense. Make sure you frequently check and increase your privacy settings on social networking sites to prevent unwanted visitors from seeing anything they shouldn’t. Create strong, unique passwords (a mixture of upper and lower case letters as well as numbers) and change them regularly to keep hackers out of your business. If you’re a Tweeter, don’t share anything you think could compromise you or that cybercriminals could use to their advantage. As a general rule, before you share any kind of personal information online during the World Cup, just think twice and remember that you’re potentially sharing it with more than just your mates…