In New Delhi: In honor of Data Privacy Day, I want to make everyone aware about the concerns for cyber security and privacy.
When online, it is critical to be a smart and safe surfer. We are too familiar with the directives reiterated by InfoSec professionals: dont use short passwords, dont use credit cards in insecure Wi-Fi locations, dont leave laptops unattended, dont leave confidential documents open on your screen when you leave your desk, etc.
Most of the discussion centers on hacking into and stealing your most sensitive information for fraudulent purposes. But there is another issue that doesnt get much attention: the issue of assuring the accuracy of your digital footprint.
According to Wikipedia, a digital footprint is defined as the trail left by an entitys interactions in a digital environment including its usage of TV, mobile phone, Internet, mobile web, and other devices A digital footprint may include the recording of activities such as system login and logouts, visits to a web-page, accessed or created files, or emails and chat messages. Social networking sites record activities of individuals, and this usage of social media and roaming services captures data that includes interests, social groups, behaviors, and location. This data can be gathered and analyzed without a users awareness.
There are concerns about cyber squatting, when people reserve your personal or company name and either hold it for ransom (translation: they demand an exorbitant amount of money to sell the URL) or they prefer to hold onto the URL and not sell it all, or worse, they create an inappropriate site. Think of that other site too similar to that of the White House (correct site is www.whitehouse.gov).
Something regarding my digital footprint happened recently. A company outside of the United States created a Twitter account that was similar to mine, so I wrote to Twitter and explained the situation.
Twitter responded within 48 hours, but, according to Twitter, it was determined that the impersonating account was not in violation of Twitters Impersonation Policy.
Twitter went further and explained In general, adding numbers, underscores, or abbreviations can help you secure a great username. But, come on, how many of us were given underscores as part of our names when we were born?
My Twitter account is @Tips4Tech, and the other account was @tips4tech_blog. Since I have a blog at http://tips4tech.wordpress.com, I believe that the other Twitter account was too similar. I wonder if Ashton Kutcher complained about a similar account name, would Twitter immediately cancel the violating account?
But back to the importance of Data Privacy Day... it is critical to reserve your personal brand name and company/brand name and all other permutations you can think of across all major social media sites.
That way, you wont have to worry about surprising news about your brand on a site that slightly resembles your official sites. Visit a site online to reserve your name and altered versions of your name. Dont wait to be surprised and closely monitor your digital footprint.
Source: infosecisland.com
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