One of the best ways to expose private information is to snap a picture of your home office and tag it as #WorkFromHome. Sure, it’s a fun trend that connects you with others while working in isolation… but it’s also the perfect opportunity for hackers to snatch personal details.It’s easy to make this critical mistake, but think twice before you hit "post." Cybercriminals can take a single detail from your background and pinpoint sensitive data, including corporate secrets.
Here’s what you should do to keep your home office safe:
Don't Overshare Online. You may think it’s harmless to snap a photo of your home office setup and share it with the world; but in reality, there are a ton of factors that should set off alarm bells. For starters, double-check your screen... you may have left some confidential information up for potential cybercriminals to see by simply zooming in on your photo to see the contents of your computer screen. Using that single shot, cybercriminals might see an email from your boss in the background of your photo, now they know which email address to use to target your team with Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks.
Take the extra step to double-check because hackers love this tactic - it takes just one employee to click a malicious link for the malware devils to rampage through the company’s network.
Bottom line... always watch what you post! Otherwise, you could leak all sorts of sensitive data - not just email addresses; you can also reveal your colleagues’ names, private web pages and even secret software that your company uses.
For example, let's say your company uses NordVPN, which was recently hacked. When a hacker sees the software’s icon on your desktop, it’s like a lightbulb just started shining over his or her head. They just found an easy way to break into your computer.
This goes for any other program. At this point, data breaches happen almost every day. Popular websites and software are constantly under attack, and when hackers break in, they often leak username and password information all over the Dark Web.
When you upload a selfie of your home office, you’re giving cybercriminals a golden opportunity. They’ll often scroll through popular hashtags like #WorkFromHome, #RemoteWork and #HomeOffice in search of this data. Don’t give it to them!
If you still want to upload a photo of your home office setup, blur the background. This is a great trick to boot cyber invaders off your personal trail.
