A few months ago, I received a text message saying that my wife won a radio contest for Taylor Swift concert tickets and that she needed to call the radio station in the next 13 minutes to claim her prize. I naturally dismissed the message as a scam and ignored it.
In fact, my wife did win the radio contest. She called back in time to claim the tickets—and Mom of the Year for scoring our daughter Taylor Swift tickets. But how did the person who texted me find my number? The radio station announced my wife’s name and our hometown. This person must have entered that information into a search engine and found a result for my wife that listed me as her spouse, along with my phone number.
In this case, the person who found my information was a well-intentioned individual. Too often, however, this publicly available information can lead to nuisance calls or, worse, identity theft or stalking.
Open-Source Online Vulnerability Assessments
Many clients—particularly high-profile/high-net-worth individuals and those who have received threats—have asked us to identify what information about them can be found online. We perform an open-source online vulnerability assessment to research what information about the individual is available and recommend ways to minimize their online footprints.
Our findings typically fall in the following categories:
- People Search Sites. Websites such as Spokeo and InstantCheckmate aggregate public data about individuals from various online and offline sources. We have identified over 100 such sites and search each one to determine if they have any of our clients’ information listed. While the information on these sites is not always accurate or up to date, the volume of information available can create risk. These sites collect such personal information as full name, date of birth/age, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, names of relatives, usernames, employment information, political party information, marital status, income, home values, education information, and criminal records.
- Social Media. People often give away more information about themselves than they realize through social media. Social network profiles and posts can reveal names of friends, names of family members, biographical information, lifestyle, and date of birth. (That post from your friend wishing you a happy 40th birthday just gave it away!) Social media also can reveal a great deal of location information, such as events you attend or places you frequent, sometimes in real-time. NOTE: Even if all your social media settings are private, your information may still be exposed through the accounts of friends and other connections.
- Miscellaneous Results. Other online findings that provide information about clients and increase their risk include:
- Lists of conference speakers/attendees that publicize where and when our client might be found.
- Professional licensing and professional organization websites that list addresses and other biographical information about license holders or members.
- Political contribution and charitable contribution sites that list the addresses of the donors and how much they donated. Such sites could also reveal location, political leanings, and level of wealth. Photographs are often taken at charitable events.
- Sporting event websites that list participants’ names and hometowns, such as the local Turkey Trot. These sites can also reveal whether an individual is a regular participant.
- Obituaries that list the names of surviving family members, which can give away other information.
- Negative online reviews in which the reviewer posts personal information about the individual(s) with whom they are unhappy.
In today’s connected world, a large amount of personal information is online and easily accessible. If you are concerned about the risks this may pose to you, Integras Intelligence can help assess your current exposure and provide suggestions for minimizing these risks.
