At the beginning of the semester, I talked to you about the importance of safety and little reminders to keep yourself safe and alert.
Cybersecurity is just as important and is often missed in conversations about safety, especially in conversations about college safety. So, why is it important to be cyber safe in college too? Everything you put online links to you. You can be as secretive and anonymous as you want, and there are still people that will be able to track down your accounts and presences to a real person – you. It is impossible to be completely anonymous online.
How do we protect ourselves online from both the people we don’t know and the people that we do know? It sounds simple, but the best ways are to limit social media posts that have identifying information, waiting to post until you have already left a location, not sharing personal details of your life, keeping your information private and only allowing those who know you to follow you.
Starting off, identifying information is the number one way someone online can find out about you and your life. Don’t share pictures that have your car, license plate, outside of your house or pictures that give you information about the layout of your home. It allows someone who means harm to figure out a plan, look for you outside of your neighborhood or track down where you live.
Do not post information about where you currently are. It allows those who are looking to rob someone to infer that your house is empty. It also allows individuals that want to know about you, where you are, what you’re doing and how they can find you, to do just that.
Do not share intimate life details of yourself and anything pertaining to your personal information. If someone knows intimate details, they can guess security questions, they can find other things about you and they can also use it to create a false reality that they know you.
Finally, only allow those who you know and would give your phone number to, to follow you. You might know someone, but if they have bad intentions, letting them follow you could end detrimentally.
