What was that thing your mother used to tell you to do? Before you became a teenager and you suddenly lost the ability to hear on the same frequency she was speaking? Don’t remember?
“Watch where you’re walking – you’ll track dirt all over and I just had the carpet cleaned”
Where have you been?
Did you know that every time you visit a website you are leaving footprints? Your IP address, date and time of visit, your domain name, what browser and operating system you use, and the exact pages visited are all traceable. When aggregated, they create a profile that can be socially engineered to lead back to your office. Anti-virus software and firewalls don’t mask your IP address over the internet.
You think you can just sweep that under the rug and it solves everything?
So much publicly shared information is available about you on social networking sites. When you add the key features of your name, mug, date of birth and hometown to the mix of retrievable information it may seem like the only answer to blurring the footprints in the sand would be to create an anonymous profile. But anonymous profiles leave the same tracks – they just require filling in a few blanks. Anonymous profiles and other measures to retain anonymity create their own path and create a suspicious-looking picture to cyber analysts in law enforcement and intelligence communities.
What can you do about it?
Don’t delete your profiles just yet. It’s just as easy for someone else to recreate your profile on a social media site, use your name and try to link up with your friends/colleagues/clients, as you. So go ahead, keep your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts – just think before you post. When you’re at work be conscientious of the trail you are leaving behind with your employer’s domain name stamped all over it.
Article courtesy of Sherry Simburger, Vice President of Client Relations at Taranet Inc. Visit their website for more information.
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