When users enter a website, it usually prompts them to enter login credentials and often offers the option to save that information for future use. While this feature might be convenient, storing usernames and passwords can pose a security risk for many users.
Saved information can be exposed to being potentially shared across different platforms or accessed by data brokers who, in turn, trade it even further. As a consequence, personal data can end up in the hands of unauthorized third parties.
Data exposure is a real threat to the protection of your personal data, leading to different risks due to unauthorized access. This usually happens because of outdated security measures, or even a website misdirection. Whichever the case, its risks to user privacy are too significant to dismiss.
This article will explore the silent cybersecurity threat that is personal data exposure, why it’s often overlooked, and how to minimize its risks.
Exposed Data: The Risks Involved
Data exposure often occurs when sensitive information is accessed and exposed by unauthorized parties. It should not be confused with a data breach, which happens when an intentional attack is planned to steal data.
One of the most dangerous risks in the event of data exposure is identity theft. It happens when Personally Identifiable Information (PII) falls into the hands of unauthorized parties. It opens up possibilities for potentially falsifying government records using that person’s information.
The second significant risk resulting from data exposure is financial fraud. Anybody would take the risk of having their bank account emptied and making illegal purchases very seriously.
Additional risks include cyberattacks and potential phishing attempts when personal information is exposed online, along with websites disguised as companies or banks that acquire your information through blatant deception.
A Gap in Security
Protecting personal data from exposure can be a complicated challenge, which is why careful attention and proactive measures are the key aspects. Plenty of factors point to the reason why this security risk can be easily overlooked when talking about online security.
- Low Awareness: Either through shady data collection practices or a lapse in judgment, plenty of users overlook how much of their personal information is collected, and sold online.
- Long-term effort: Choosing to control how much personal data is shared online and removing the rest is an ongoing and time-consuming process. Most people don’t have the time, or patience to put in that much work.
- Repopulation: Data resurfaces after a while through constant collection and transmission. Starting with a clean online slate, with enough time, the removed data will emerge again.
- Far-sighted consequences: Data exposure is a risk where consequences aren’t immediately felt, which leads to a perceived low risk.
From long-term consequences to a low-perceived risk, data exposure is an issue that is both difficult to identify, and at times, hard to act on.
How to Minimize Personal Data Exposure
Tackling this threat requires time and patience. Because of this, even award-winning cybersecurity companies, for example, Microsoft, sometimes struggle when tackling this issue.
Here are a few steps on how you can minimize data exposure:
1.Scan for Old Accounts
Old or unused accounts can often be a front for data exposure. Erasing accounts that are no longer used decreases the risk of personal information getting exposed.
2.Adjust Privacy Settings
Plenty of sites offer options for making an account private, which in turn, reduces access from unauthorized individuals.
3.Employ a VPN
A VPN offers an extra layer of security that hides both personal information and search history from malevolent third parties and internet service providers.
4.Manage Your Passwords
Password managers are convenient for keeping passwords for different websites, saved and automatically filled. However, an unprotected device can lead to all of these passwords getting leaked, and accounts compromised. Keeping track of your password manager, and which devices have them, increases online security.
5.Use Data Removal Services
Data brokers can often trade any information online from their databases. Making use of data removal services sets a precedent for a long-term effort to protect online privacy from potentially dangerous parties.
6.Pay Close Attention to Websites
Websites can disguise themselves as a bank or company, with carefully crafted sites designed to steal any information. While it can be difficult to detect, extreme caution should be exercised in this case. A general rule of thumb is, that if something online sounds too good to be true, chances are, it probably is.
Personal data exposure is a concealed issue many people tend to overlook during their online activities. Its consequences aren’t immediate and tend to manifest after some time. This is precisely why it builds up as one of the major cybersecurity threats.
Minimizing the risks of personal data exposure requires proactive protection, and after all personal information is best kept private.
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