Cybersecurity: Be careful about what you share

Doubtless you have been warned about the dangers of clicking on suspicious links in emails and of opening suspicious email attachments. You’ve also been reminded to never give out your password to anyone (even the IT department). But it’s time to take your cybersecurity awareness to the next level and consider how to avoid disclosing information on social media that could be used against you.

 

You’ve probably been forced to set up security questions on dozens of accounts in your lifetime. Usually these are stock questions like “What was the name of your first pet?” or “Where did you go to high school?” or “What is your mother’s maiden name?”. These kind of questions might make sense for securing your account. Someone would have to know you pretty well to be able to guess these kinds of things, and this isn’t the kind of information you can find about someone with quick Google search.

 

That is, unless you might have volunteered that information. Maybe you pet’s name appears in every other Tweet that you make on your public Twitter. You may be proudly displaying the high school and college you attended on your Facebook profile. Or maybe somebody sent you a fun quiz that purports to tell you which famous movie star you are, and one of the questions asks what your mother’s maiden name is.

 

There are many ways we can unintentionally disclose information in our digital lives that could be used to craft effective social engineering or phishing attacks against us and those close to us. Social Engineering, in the context of cybersecurity, refers to “the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information.” (Wikipedia). Social Engineering attacks have many forms, but perhaps the most common is a specially crafted email message. This practice of sending deceptive email messages with the intention of obtaining sensitive information or getting the user to click on a bad link is referred to as Phishing. You can read more about these kinds of email attacks here: https://www.webroot.com/us/en/resources/tips-articles/what-is-social-engineering

 

In summary, this article is not to tell you that you should never share anything on social media. Just remember to take precautions, like setting the appropriate privacy settings on your Facebook account to prevent the whole world from seeing all of your information, or making a separate protected Twitter account where you tweet things that just close friends and family should see, or being extra mindful of what information you disclose when taking a quiz or playing a game on Facebook or any other website. Any information you put out there on the internet never truly goes away. Don’t let a suspicious Facebook quiz be the reason that a hacker impersonated you to your bank and broke into your account.

 

Constant vigilance! If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact the IT department or submit a ticket.