Having worked with many individuals responding to incidents where their digital private images were shared without consent, social media or email accounts had unauthorised access, and even physical safety was a concern, it is all too familiar how terrifying the unknown can be. As someone who has been on both the victim’s and later the responder’s side, I am qualified to express both the terror and knowledge of things you can do to take back control.

In 2017, I had the pleasure to speak with the Pint of Science group at a music festival on personal security, one of my more unique conference stages. It was brilliant fun, but it also led to many personal digital security discussions from the audience.

Families

If you’re a technical person, remembering each and every piece of your online footprint can be an inconvenience. Mistakes happen, and information you might not have wanted revealed can accidentally be shown. In episode 141 of IntelTechniques podcast, guest Jack Rhysider, host of Darknet Diaries, talks about how even he was taken by surprise from this. Listen to the episode for exact details. (This part begins at around 14:40.) Essentially, a fan was able to locate where Jack lived, and they worked through clues within the posted video and used this to contact him at work.

For non-technical persons, simply understanding the footprint we leave online, on our devices, and even in our daily interactions in life can be a nightmare. I spoke with one person who had their Facebook account taken over and funds stolen by a known terrorist group. All of this linked back to an email compromise.

During an investigation with ITV’s The Kyle Files, I found another person who posted an image of their child and his sports certificate. Unfortunately, the (Read more...)