One of the greatest weapons hackers have is knowing

One of the greatest weapons hackers have is knowing your whereabouts. It opens doors for hackers to utilize to either directly interact with you for social engineering or to impersonate you electronically in your absence. Before electronic communications and social media, when you were away calls or messages would be diverted and sorted and where you were wasn’t important.  

With the advent of electronic communications people expect an instant response whether it is an email or text. Social media has created the expectation that you need to let everyone know your whereabouts complete with a picture and review.   

So, let’s back the clock a bit to when times were simpler: 

• Don’t instantly reply to emails or texts. This delay moves urgent matters to a direct form of communication either on a call or in person. 
• Turn off location sharing on your social applications. While tempting to show your great holiday photos or work trip save it for when you’re back! Have you heard of the gift card attacks? These generally happen when hackers know you are away from the office! 
• Utilize email forwarding vs. out-of-office notifications. This allows while you’re on holiday for someone who has been designated in your absence to handle things, they can be coy about where you are and your expected return.

Finally, in your absence get people to call you when a request for financial or access to secure information is requested. Regardless of what the electronic request says a warm voice goes a long way to your cyber security.