People are spending more time than ever on social media, sharing their private information and making it more accessible than they probably realize. Permanent online trails are being created of personal information such as birthdays, phone numbers, employment information, photos, geo-location data, and more.
As stated in a current article from Daily Mail, Facebook recently discovered a colossal security breach which affected 50 million user accounts. This was not the first time an event of such magnitude affected the internationally popular social media platform, and it likely will not be the last. Facebook is not the only site that is targeted by hackers: any online site that requires a user login is fair game.
What does your identity sell for on the dark web?
On the open market place, personal data is not worth as much as one would think. This is a disturbing thought when considering how devastating the impact can be on an individual’s life.
Researchers found that the best way to protect oneself is to use two-step authentication when a text message is sent to the user’s phone with a code. This means that a hacker is not able to access someone’s account on a new machine without also having access to their phone. Another way to protect oneself is to use different passwords for each account. This way, if information is unlawfully obtained, a hacker will not be able to get to all accounts at once.
