Digital Foot Print

How do they know?

Your digital footprint is left behind you no matter where you go, just like a motorbike leaving rubber on a track.

Traction

How reduce your foot print

There are several methods to reduce your digital Foot print, methods include VPN, Settings, Clear cookies, Private browsing and being careful with what you share online.

Apps and Devices

IP Address

Your IP address, a unique identifier for your online presence, can reveal your general location to websites and services you use on the internet. While it is essential for network connectivity, it also poses significant privacy issues.

Digital foot print

What is it ?

Melissa

ILOVEYOU

SoBig

WannaCry

1999

Search Engines

2000

2003

2017

The more traction you get on social media the bigger your digital foot print, just like the faster you go on a bike the more rubber you leave on the track.

A program designed to search and identify items in a database that match user-specified keywords or characters, particularly used for locating specific sites on the World Wide Web.

Numerous applications and intelligent devices gather personal data, including location, contacts, and user behavior.

Biggest Know Computer Virus

The more infomation you put there the more susceptible you are to attacks from hackers and social engineers.

Melissa first appeared in March 1999 when programmer David Smith accessed an AOL account and posted a file named “alt.sex”. The file was promised to contain free passwords and access to several adult websites.However, when opened in Word, the virus spread through the victim’s system, accessed Microsoft Outlook, and sent emails to the first 50 contacts it could find. These emails included an attachment containing the virus, often named “sexxxxy.jpg”, and came with messages like, “Here is the document you requested… don’t show anyone else”. If a victim opened the attachment, the whole cycle would repeat. It cost around $80 million in 1999 to repair the damage done by the virus. When adjusted for inflation, this comes to around $147 million today. The virus infected over 300 corporations and government organizations, including Microsoft and the United States Marine Corps. source : https://www.techopedia.com/antivirus/most-dangerous-computer-viruses

All the websites you click on have the ability to track your location

Sobig surfaced in 2003. It was a Trojan horse and a worm that spread through emails containing a .pif file. Earlier versions of Sobig were relatively harmless, but the Sobig.F variant crippled systems worldwide.Once the .pif file was downloaded onto a system, the Sobig virus spread to all connected local networks and hard drives. It then found stored emails and re-sent them with the attached .pif file. Sobig spread so widely that one in every 17 emails contained the Sobig worm at one point. A 2018 study put Sobig second only to Mydoom when it came to the speed of its distribution. Some prominent victims of the virus included the BBC and Air Canada. Estimated damages caused by the worm stand at an enormous $35 billion. Source : https://www.techopedia.com/antivirus/most-dangerous-computer-viruses

The ILOVEYOU virus created havoc when it was released in May 2000. It works in a similar way to Melissa, and victims received an email with the subject line, “I Love You.” When victims opened an attachment included with the message, it downloaded a virus, which accessed the host’s Outlook contacts and sent the same email to all the contacts it could find.The worm was a VBScript program disguised as a text file. Once opened, it overwrote and corrupted files on the system and forwarded login details to the creator of the virus. Given its rapid distribution, it was one of the most dangerous computer virus infections ever seen. Within just ten days, ILOVEYOU infected close to 50 million computers, and $15 billion was spent on removing the worm from systems around the world. The virus was so widespread that the Pentagon, the Danish and U.K. parliaments, the U.S. Army, Ford Motors, and the CIA all suspended their email systems to control the damage. source : https://www.techopedia.com/antivirus/most-dangerous-computer-viruses

The WannaCry ransomware spread rapidly in May 2017. Once it accessed a system, it encrypted files, making them inaccessible to the device’s owner, and displayed a ransom demand for decrypting the files. The ransom was initially $300, which later increased to $600.The ransomware exploited a vulnerability in the Windows operating system and attacked computers that hadn’t installed a security patch to combat EternalBlue – a hacking technique devised by the NSA –released by Microsoft two months before the attack. WannaCry is estimated to have infected around 230,000 systems worldwide. One of the most prominent victims was the National Health Service in the UK. The attack led to the cancelation of almost 19,000 appointments and cost around £92 million to repair the damage. Total global losses are estimated at around $4 billion. Source : https://www.techopedia.com/antivirus/most-dangerous-computer-viruses

Your main Search engines are Google Chrome, Safari, Opera GX and Edge

The more you use the internet the more Cookies they gather Cookies, commonly referred to as internet cookies, are text files containing small data pieces, such as a username and password, used to identify your computer on a network. Certain cookies are designated to recognize individual users and enhance their web browsing experience. The data in a cookie is generated by the server when you connect.

Strategies to Minimize Your Digital Footprint 1. Utilize Private Browsing: Activate 'Incognito' or 'Private' browsing modes to minimize data retention. 2. Eliminate Cookies: Frequently delete your browser cookies to diminish tracking. 3. Modify Privacy Settings: Regularly check and adjust your social media and app privacy settings to manage shared information. 4. Employ a VPN: A Virtual Private Network (VPN) can conceal your IP address and secure your online activities. 5. Share Wisely: Be mindful about the information you post on social media and the details you provide in online forms.

Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content amongst virtual communities and networks.

Quick summary of A digital footprint, sometimes called a “digital shadow,” is the unique trail of data that a person or business creates while using the internet.