Watch Your Step: The Dangers of Your Digital Footprint

Picture yourself on the run from a dangerous predator, what is the first thing you will do? Realistically, you want to make sure this predator cannot find you. In movies, you might have seen characters hide their footprints, cover themselves in mud, or simply not move. The overall objective is to hide because if you are found, it would have been already too late.

Unfortunately, in this day and age, countless digital predators track your every move, eager to feed on your data. However, that's not the worst part; in fact, the biggest problem is that most people simply don't care. Most simply go the way of: "I have nothing of value to offer the hacker, so I am safe." Statements like this one are made out of complete ignorance on how cybersecurity works. You see, it is not what you possess that is valuable to a hacker; rather, it is you as a whole that is worth something to them. If they go through you, they then have access to your networks. Friends and family on the same internet connection become compromised, all from the negligence of one individual. Thus, if you do not care about yourself, will you at least try to protect those around you?

What Is a Digital Footprint?

Just how you leave footprints as you traverse through a desert or forest, you also leave digital traces that lead back to you. This is known as your digital footprint—that is, the trail of data you leave when using the internet. For example, every time you post on Instagram, whether it is a normal post, a story, or a highlight, you leave a digital footprint. Even simply making an account on Instagram or any other social platform creates a digital footprint. For a hacker, all they need to do is set a target, and then they can easily find you. You might have heard of algorithms that recommend to you the content you see on your home page; this is all through digital footprints. The algorithm studies you and your activities to advertise specific content to you.

Remember those websites you just made an account with and forgot about? They are enough to endanger you and your family members. This becomes even more concerning when you share personal details such as your real name, hobbies, pets, or place of study on these platforms. You would be practically selling yourself on the internet.

Am I Safe?

The sad answer is: no one knows. The internet is like the oceans, so wide and filled with unknowns. There are two ways to assess your safety on the internet. First, how much information about you is publicly available? Second, have any of your accounts been compromised? Since you have more more control of the information you choose to display about yourself, let's talk about that first.

Your Information on Social Media

Social media is a lifestyle; it is a way you choose to live your life. For this reason, not everyone behaves the same on social platforms. Some are comfortable with sharing pictures of themselves and family members to the public. Others only share with those whom they trust. Nonetheless, I argue it is not about who share this information with, but about what you choose to share in the first place. In order to understand this issue more clearly, let's understand why people share what they share in the first place. There are two possible reasons, both of which stem from pure human psychology. Validation or documentation are the reasons most people post on social media. Subconsciously, your mind seeks a sense of belonging. "Everyone uses social media, why shouldn't I?" You want people to validate you or to make you feel good; it is human. The problem is you probably won't accept that. You don't want to accept that this is the reason you post, which brings us to the second reason: documentation. You claim it is for memories, so you can remember old times. If that's the case, why don't you just keep it on your phone's gallery? Why do you need to post it online? Is it to share the memory with others? I doubt. I believe you want to express yourself, which is part of the need to belong.

I think all of us should try to understand why we do things. To keep yourself safe, you should stop posting online; it is for the better, trust me.

Are Your Accounts Compromised?

A lot of times, an account of yours has indeed been compromised, but you just don't know it yet. As mentioned before, there is no real way to know if you are fully safe; however, you can use this website to check if your accounts have been involved in any known security breaches. Note, even if your email is clean, that doesn't necessarily mean you are completely safe. If one of your accounts is found to have compromised data, you should first check what type of data has been exposed. If it is passwords, card details, or what is similar, you should probably never make an account with that service again and delete your current one. The least you can do, of course, is change your password, as your old one is somewhere on the dark web now.

The Right Steps

Before creating an account for any service, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this service essential for my needs?
2. Will I use this service regularly?
3. Is the company behind it trustworthy?

If at least one of the answers is "No," then you might need to rethink your decisions. If a service is not necessary for your needs, why use it in the first place? If you don't plan to use a service regularly, just take a minute or two to delete your account after you got what you wanted from it. If the company behind it is not trustworthy, making an account with them is like choosing to eat food that you know is poisoned.

Another recommendation is to have a disposable email. Instead of using your main email for services that you don't really need, just use a disposable email so that if a breach were to happen, your email has nothing to offer. Obviously, this disposable email should be totally random and have nothing to do with you in terms of names, date of birth, and other personal information. A free disposable email service is provided by ADGUARD.

Finally, it wouldn't be a guide on cybersecurity if we didn't talk about passwords. Stop using details related to you in your passwords. Your name, date of birth, pet's name, family member's name, and the likes don't belong in a password. Also, stop using the same password on multiple platforms. Use these three basic strategies to keep your accounts safe:

1. Use mnemonics - Mnemonics are techniques used to help you remember things. For instance, the phrase "That which is yours can't be taken away," can become T@twiursc'tbta. Initially, this looks like complete gibberish but take it this way: T@t --> that, w --> which, i --> is, urs --> yours, c't --> can't, b --> be, t --> taken, a --> away. It may take some time to memorize it, but if you do, you have a pretty strong password. Of course, you can make up your own mnemonics.
2. Password managers - A password manager is a software that not only stores your password but also suggests strong passwords for your accounts. Services like Bitwarden and Proton Pass are great free examples. Now, one may ask: "What if these services get hacked? Won't my data get exposed?" Not necessarily. Your passwords on these services are stored in encrypted form, which means penny123 is actually b906de81cdaa5f446f4d3dcc5b448f208513e on the password manager's database. Thus, even if these password vaults are breached, your password will appear as complete gibberish to the hacker.
3. Use Passphrases - Passphrases function exactly like passwords but instead of one word, they are a sequence of words. You would be surprised to know that a passphrase like I love milk is much stronger than a password like $PenY1@# due to the presence of spaces. The main issue with passphrases is that many services currently restrict the use of spaces in passwords, though this may change over time.