What is Profile Stripping?

There’s a good chance you may not have even heard of ‘Profile Stripping’ before now, or if you have it was probably from the news around October 2007. I think it’s really important to mention this one, as until now it’s a fairly unheard of dark-art! Nonetheless it can be just as destructive as anything we’ve seen before. More importantly, it could also affect our children too.

Profile stripping is an identity threat that has emerged out of the increasing popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Bebo. Some of the fastest growing sites on the web today, these social networking sites seem a harmless way to communicate friends in a fun way. However there’s a darker side to these sites.

Under the surface these mammoth sites store, display and link together an unbelievably deep pool of personal data which includes names, addresses, contact details, consumer behavior (such as which stores people like to use) friends, career details and even our future plans! Do you really want strangers knowing your home will be empty as you’re off on holiday for 2 weeks? I didn’t think so.

At first glance this type of information doesn’t seem to pose an immediate threat to your identity, does it? Well no, most of us won’t see the public availability of our favorite band as a compromising issue! But you’d be wrong.

Profile Stripping is the digital alternative to ‘Dumpster Diving’ we covered at the beginning of this guide. Unfortunately, most of the criminals prowling these social sites for information to ‘strip’ are accomplished ‘hackers’. This means they often have advanced skills in computer programming, which they’ll use for criminal purposes. They often cause the webmasters of social sites a real headache by compromising the day to day security of their sites.

What does this mean for us? Well it means that we cannot rely on these sites to keep our information secure from prying eyes! There’s a constant daily battle raging between hackers and webmasters, and we DON’T want to be caught in the middle of it!

Keep in mind, the only information that’s available on these social-networking sites is information we have consciously and willingly contributed. By thinking very carefully about the info we add, we can be reasonably confident that our data can’t be used for ID theft or fraud.

Unfortunately due to the nature of social networking, it’s never possible for you to be certain who it is you’re talking to. For this reason, be very wary of anybody who begins asking you questions online, however innocent they may seem. Even if it is somebody you know! Why? Because you think you’re talking to a friend, when you could actually be talking to somebody you don’t know, who has gained access to your friends account.

Remember the ‘Hackers’ we mentioned earlier on? These are the very people who are likely to try this type of approach. You also may be wondering why you should be very careful answering innocent seeming questions? Again, remember earlier when we talked about passwords? Yep, most people do use family related passwords and access information. By telling somebody you have two children called Jack and Rachel, you have just provided a thief with a series of password combinations to try.

Profile Stripping Defensive Tip

Don't let strangers know that you were 'born and raised' in Springfield, IL. Many online companies use 'city you were born in' as a security question. Another common security question is 'mother's maiden name'. This means, if you forget your password and can answer a security question, some sites will let you log on or they will tell you the username and password you forgot. Make sure you aren't making this type of information freely available.

Don't Forget to Educate your Kids

I want to mention another (more serious) aspect of social networking sites. Within a few minutes of visiting these sites you can see it’s pretty clear they’re aimed mainly toward teenagers and young adults. Yet as our children continue to ‘grow up’ faster and at an earlier age, they are more frequently found surfing around on sites such as Facebook and Myspace.

You see, no matter how much we try to protect and educate our kids to the dangers in the world around them, we often neglect to talk to them about the dangers of the virtual world. We can never really be 100% sure who it is they are talking to, or who it is they are unknowingly giving away private details to. Unfortunately it’s not only fraudsters and identity thieves who use these sites, but also sexual predators and mentally deranged individuals.

Why not take 10 minutes right now and speak to your kids about the dangers of Internet chat rooms and social sites. Remember, your kids are one of the easiest routes a criminal can take to obtain your private family information. Pretending to be another child is a very effective way for thieves, intent on exploiting your identity, to communicate with children online.

Defensive Tip for Parents

There may be times when your kids will be surfing the net without your direct supervision, so it’s a great idea to use parental control features such as Google search preferences. You can set your browser not to display results of a violent, pornographic or gambling nature. This will at least prevent anything disturbing from appearing when your kids enter seemingly innocent searches. You can access preferences from the Google search homepage.

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