Can someone find where you Live? Work or More? Conduct a Digital Security Assessment Part 1
How much does your email, number and name say?
“45% of Americans have had their personal information compromised by a data breach in the last five years”
-Varonis (Cybersecurity Company)
What Personal Information of yours gets exposed in a Data Breach?
The 2019 data breach of First American Financial Corporation exposed:
“885 million records containing bank account details, statements, tax records, and mortgage/property records which would include home addresses.”
-Cloaked (Privacy and Security Firm)
Purpose of Post:
- Increase Your Self-Digital Awareness
- Identify How Your Personal Information is Found
- Determine What a Stalker Can Learn about you and HIDE IT
-The Tactical Victim-
It’s a Mindset, a New Way of Life 🔒
There are alot of costly programs out there that claim (and can help in conjunction with eachother) protect your privacy and digital information, such as:
-Email Service’s
-VPN’s
-Antivirus’s
-Privacy/Data Broker tools
These days, each service is increasing their capabilities as time goes on and competitors offer more capabilities.
All of these capabilities, can play a role in securing your data and leaking less online.
Not all of their services and capabilities are equal though, nor can all them combined, protect you from poor OPSEC Practices (ie. decisions you make).
For Example:
Encrypted emails, can’t prevent your address from being leaked if you entered a raffle to win a car.
A VPN, can hide your IP and reduce data that cookies collect about you (but not all of it).
Also they don’t: “anonymize your activities on social media platforms or any online platform where you willingly share personal information.”
We all want one tool to fix our problems..that tool is our brain (remember OPSEC?)
Cost of Services
Adding each to your monthly budget gets costly and quickly.
Also,
-Some of their capabilities overlap.
Worse: as mentioned before, some don’t help how some thought they did.
Free First:
There are some free steps you can and should take, to see if you need such services in the first place.
If you’re in danger, you probably only really need one of the above, which I’ll get to later in the article.
My Step by Step Approach on Google
If you have been a victim of stalking or another kind of abuse, the below google search steps are important to take.
Current Stalking Victims
And if you still are being victimized and are running away,
these steps are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
It is prudent to be aware of what information is out there about you regardless of your circumstances too.
→Prevention is better than reaction.
The Basic Google Assessment and Simple Steps
It is quick, easy and very informative.
Step One:
Google your:
A-Name(s)
B-Email(s)
C-Number(s)
There is a high return on a low amount of effort with these simple steps.
And it’s FREE!
What comes up?
Now.. Take a good look at the:
A-Google search results for “All”.
B-then click on “Images”
C-then “Videos”
D-then “News”
when googling your name(s),
then your emails(s)
and then your number(s)
→click on all the options and see what comes up.
The First Step is Awareness
You may be surprised how much of your life is online and how much people can learn about you (even on accident).
and yes, a stalker will click on all those and more.
Note:
I’m not here to tell you what to or what not to hide (even if you are a victim of stalking).
→I’m here to give you Options and Awareness,
and show you “How to” hide it,
if you desire to.
Will people really be googling this?
- For business purposes, yes.
- For Dating, maybe
→for malicious reasons: YES.
Psychological Profile:
“Stalkers are obsessive, they will look for every opportunity to gather information…to harm victims.”
— From the guide “Digital Stalking” by Safer Derbyshire
Here’s a couple example’s:
“Andrews’s encounter with Barrett, a serial stalker, was frightening.
Court documents contend that Barrett engineered sophisticated techniques to locate
-the home addresses,
-travel schedules
and birthdays of the women he stalked.
Then (he) created opportunities to be located next to these women in private settings.
Barrett would call hotels where Andrews might be staying and hope to convince a hotel employee to confirm Andrews’s reservation.”
You don’t need to be famous for this too happen, trust me.
For example:
“Shana Grice, a 19-year-old woman from England, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Michael Lane, in 2016.
Lane had been stalking and harassing Grice for months prior to her death, including breaking into her home and placing a tracking device on her car.
Despite Grice reporting Lane’s behavior to the police multiple times, she was not taken seriously, and her tragic death could have been prevented.”
Lessons
- You don’t need to be famous
- Stalkers, abusers, predators have more time on their hands than you can imagine.
- They will find and or make the time.
- They will also use the information they find about you in ways that would not occur to you
This is just the first step to take.
→Part 2, will show you how to hide some of the information you find and prevent some sites from collecting it in the first place.
As mentioned Earlier, here are some Tools worth Paying for (better than fancy vpn’s and email services)
- Doc Defender Scrubs Personal Data from Data Brokers
- The Data Broker Elimination Process and Steps
- Delete Me
Related Articles:
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Thank you all for your support.
-The Tactical Victim-
It’s a Mindset, a New Way of Life 🔒
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