DIGITAL THIEF

What you need to know about identity theft on the Internet?

The Internet is increasingly fraught with dangers and you have to be very careful when handling personal information. One of the current risks is the theft of digital identity, which must be learned to prevent in the most efficient way possible since it affects a large number of users and organizations in the world.

A distinction must be made between identity theft and identity theft: the first would refer to the theft of data from both social networks and access to the Internet accounts of the affected user; while the second is usually done with the creation of a false profile with which the attacker pretends to be someone else.

The purpose of these actions is usually to commit criminal acts. This type of crime is on the rise online. Masquerading as someone else, whether in public or in private, has its advantages for the thief and, unfortunately, the victim finds out when it is too late.

The motives that move these cyber-criminals are usually economic (theft of bank accounts and credit card)  or social  (ruining reputation, defamation, revenge ... and they do not entail economic ends).

How do they do that?

Let’s point out some of the ways that thieves steal this information. The most relevant are the following:

Personal documents:  The loss of the wallet can be a reason for them to access your data through the Internet (creating a relationship between the offline and online world), as well as through smartphones, tablets, computers, etc. They are usually devices that have the passwords linked to the accounts (such as the e-mail or even in the trash you can find files of great importance).

Insecure online data:  The use of insecure connections due to the lack of installation of an antivirus, access to non-secure webs (without being HTTPS), creation of simple passwords and the same for all. Attacks, phishing and, doxing (in exchange for not posting personal information, ask you to perform certain actions) are the most common when our data capture.

Companies that fail to comply with the user data protection regulations:  the release of data, whether due to violation of the same by the entity itself, accident or attack, causes emails, credit card numbers and everything to be filtered type of personal identifiers of a large number of people at one time.

Most of this stolen information is sold on black markets that, depending on the type, will be used in one way or another for the benefit of cybercriminals.

How to protect yourself?

In order to protect yourself as safely as possible, we recommend that you put the following into practice:

Don't "recycle" passwords:  Try to have different passwords for different accounts. To remember them, it is more advisable to keep them on paper in a drawer at home than to have them on platforms such as the cloud.

Use strong passwords:  Combine uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers to make them harder to crack.

Only enter personal data on reputable websites.

Browse safely:  Using VPN (virtual private network with which you browse without showing your IP address), very useful when you are browsing through public WiFi’s.

Try not to fall into fraud such as "phishing":  Try to be attentive to the emails you receive and discard those that seem suspicious (that contain strange links or ask for too much data).

Protect your computer and your devices with antivirus systems.

Keep your security software always up to date.

In the event of being the victim of an attack, don't forget to immediately cancel all your bank cards  and inform your bank to keep your money protected before it can be too late.