Think Before You Post: Threat of Real Time Information Sharing

In this age of social media, people are sharing more and more about themselves than they ever had before, but how much is too much?

Social media can be a great way to connect with family, friends and community, but it can also be a window for bad actors to peer into your life and track you.

One of the ways that a bad actor is use your social media against you is by using your real time updates that show your location, share personal information or give away key details about your whereabouts and who you are with.

For instances, if you post something like

"Having a fun time at Marty's Pub for my 22nd birthday!"

This post gives bad actors a lot of information, it lets them know where exactly you are, how old you are, when exactly you were born and possibly a personally significant place.

Personal information like that can be used in the future for attacks like password guessing and identity impersonation.

And if a bad actor was trying to find out where you are, with a post like that you would be giving them an answer and if a picture you posted included the people you are with, the attacker will be able to tell how many people you are with.

So next time you are about to post something to your your profile, stop and think. Is that post giving away information that you are comfortable giving away?