Beyond the photo

We are living in a world where sharing every aspect of one’s life is seen as a positive and we are more worried about the likes and followers than the actual content that is being put out onto our platforms.

Have you ever checked the background of a photo you are about to post on social media?

Be it at a work event or at home, there could be confidential information in the background without you realising it. You may be thinking that this is crazy, why would people have confidential information lying around?

Well you will be surprised. From documents on desks that is busy being worked on, to names and ID numbers from forms on a table at an event. These seemingly minor details will cause catastrophic results when falling into the hands of a cybercriminal.

This is where awareness plays a huge role. You need to make sure that anything placed on a public forum is breach free – meaning it doesn’t have anything in the image/document that could be used in a cyber attack.

Documents that include breachable information: CV’s. My MD, John Mc Loughlin did a blog on this not so long ago. You upload your CV on a job site for potential job opportunities. This is public.

You have your name, surname, email address, contact number, blurb about yourself and your ID number... what more does a hacker need?

You must understand that once that information is uploaded and is out there, you have no control over who uses it.

Rather send documents that contain confidential information directly to the intended recipient or tweak the information if you are putting it online so that it doesn’t have any information that cybercriminals could use for an attack.

Check the background of photos and the type of information you are putting out there.

You may think these are silly details and why would a hacker want to hack you? But by having all this information out in the open, you have made yourself easy pickings for hackers and they will most definitely use this to their advantage and take this “gift”.

Don’t let yourself fall victim when you could easily avoid it.

Think secure, stay secure!

Let’s get real.

Olivia-Hannah Coetzee