OnYourMark, LLC Blog

This month‘s Pro is Ellen Rohr, Operations Manager at OnYourMark, LLC. Ellen shares tips to keep your personal information private online.

The Internet is a vast information source where you can find out anything about anything, just about anything about anyone. The Internet has drastically changed the way we communicate and share information about ourselves and those around us. It is important to remember when posting information online about yourself, your family or friends, that you are not really anonymous. The more personal information you share about yourself, the more you become vulnerable to attacks.

Once you publish it, it is there
Once you put something on the Internet, it is a permanent part of cyber history. You can’t take it back. You can change or remove the information, but once online chances are someone has probably seen it somewhere. Places like the Wayback Machine (www.archive.org) go out and spider websites and permanently keep copies of webpages they come across. Once a page is archived in the Wayback Machine, an online copy of it always exists. Many of the major search engines offer “cached” copies of web pages. They cache the copies to help the pages open faster. Cached copies are sometimes available after a web page has been deleted or altered.

Email is also a risk
Remember your audience may not be just who you send to. You should be wary communicating even through email. When an ordinary email is sent through cyberspace it is typically sent in plain text. Spammers and Hackers can intercept that email and use the information contained in it for malicious purposes. Sending passwords, personal data such as bank account numbers, social security numbers, etc. should be avoided.

Mailing lists and newsgroups
Hobby and interest groups often have mailing lists where you can correspond with people of similar hobbies and interest through email. Many of these lists archive the emails that are sent to the list on a webpage. In 1996, I was active on a Scouts-L mailing list. Nine years later, my posts are still available even though I am not as active in scouts as I used to be. Recently there was a post to my genealogy newsgroup that a woman who posted her name address and phone number on a genealogy mailing list years ago was the target of an identity theft attack. Officials think it was partially due to her divulging too much information about herself on the mailing list.

Family webpages and information
Have you ever been asked to fill in your mother’s maiden name when filling out a credit application? Family webpages share with the world your family history which often times includes your mother’s maiden name. A malicious person could find that and use it for their benefit. As a protection factor, I do not use my mother’s maiden name when asked to fill in that security question. Instead I use something that I will remember but is not easily traced.

Should you stop publishing online or sending email? Of course not. To maintain your safety and security, be careful as to how much personal information you do post online.

What would you like to ask the pro? Email your questions to askthepro@OnYourMark.com!