Digital Footprint and Identity Theft – What You Need to Know

In our increasingly hyper-connected world, all that we do online will leave a trace of our digital footprint. From the posting on social media to e-commerce platform shopping, we produce data that can be collected, analyzed and possibly exploited. Identity theft is one of the biggest dangers associated with an uncontrolled digital footprint.

What Is a Digital Footprint?

A digital footprint is a data you leave behind when you use the internet. It includes:

• Social media activity
• Search engine queries
• Online purchases
• Email communications
• App usage
• Website visits

There exist two kinds of digital footprints:

Active footprint- Data that you share purposely like a tweet or Facebook post.

Passive footprint – data collected without direct participation from you such as cookies that tracks your browsing habits.

Either type helps create your overall online identity which can be assembled by malicious actors.

How Digital Traces Can Cause Identity Theft

Identity theft happens when someone acquires your personal information: your name, your Social Security number, or your financial details, to commit fraud. The digital footprint that you leave is full of many of the breadcrumbs that criminals need.

Public Information Exposure

Sensitive information such as birthday, pet name or favorite sports teams, shared in social media can be used to guess passwords or security questions. Information that is available on public professional networks such as LinkedIn can also be exploited.

Phishing and Social Engineering

Hackers look at your digital habits to create reliable phishing emails or messages. For instance, if you frequently shop on Amazon, then a fake email, from Amazon requesting your login details, could be very successful.

Practical Examples of Digital Footprint Exploitation in the World.

Equifax data breach revealed the personal information of more than 140 million Americans, which was from digital records.

Social media scams like fake contests or jobs have seen thousands of incidents where users unknowingly give out sensitive data.

Hackers have used stolen email accounts to change banking and investment service passwords, and fully access financial profiles.

These examples are just how precious and vulnerable your digital footprint can be.

Warning Signs of Identity Theft

Prevention is better than cure in this case. Look out for these red flags:

• Unexpected charges made on your credit card
• You did not authorize account change notifications
• Loan or credit applications denied without a valid reason
• Non-delivered mail or email concerning financial services.
• Notices from banks or cybersecurity services regarding suspicious activity

In case any of these happens, take action immediately by contacting the institutions affected and reporting the incident to authorities.

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How can you defend your digital footprint?

Audit Your Online Presence

Search your name on different search engines to find out what is available publicly. Use the digital footprint checker to discover possible risks.

Take care not to post anything personal even though you consider them unimportant. Be sure to give some time to make sure and fine-tune the privacy controls for each of your social media accounts.

Use Strong, Unique Passwords

Remember to use different passwords for every one of your accounts. Use password manager to dictate and manage a strong, unique password.

Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

With 2FA installed, such as SMS or authenticator apps, it greatly complicates the work for hackers to gain access to your accounts when you’ve informed them about your password.

Monitor Your Accounts and Credit

Review your bank statements regularly as well as your credit reports to stay alert. Services like credit monitoring and identity theft protection are effective in the detection of and alerting you in the case of some strange transactions.

Stay Updated on Data Breaches

Use existing breach reporting tools to look to see if your credentials have been made part of a data breach. Change passwords immediately if so.

Secure Your Devices

Update your devices and install antivirus protection and use a VPN when you are on an unsecured Wi-Fi network.

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Final Thoughts

Your digital footprint is not only consisting of your marks of online activities. It’s your digital profile that everyone can access. Untended accounts and personal information may become irresistible targets for the identity thieves. In a practical sense, it is impossible to delete all online presence but by watching your online activities, you can really defuse the issue of identity theft impacting on you. Subjecting to regular basic safety steps allows you to retain control over your data in the current world of interconnection while managing the safety of your online self.

Author Bio:

This is Aryan, I am a professional SEO Expert & Write for us technology blog and submit a guest post on different platforms- Technooweb provides a good opportunity for content writers to submit guest posts on our website. We frequently highlight and tend to showcase guests.