How stupid are our teens online? Errrrr VERY

>>  Sunday, November 03, 2013

I had a disturbing interaction on twitter recently, I saw a photo of a UK driving license (retweeted) on my timeline with the comment "sometimes identity theft is hard, sometimes not so much". 

I messaged the 17 year old girl the license photo belonged to and told her to delete it, that her information was being shared on-line.

I had a read on the timeline of the guy doing the posting and there were links to more instances of UK and US driving licenses.  For each one I saw, I sent a message to the picture owner telling them to delete it and they all did immediately.  This tells me that they needed reminding, they had not realised how far their photos can get and how dangerous the data they are sharing is.  I knew their ages, their address and what they looked like.  They aren't just exposing themselves to financial fraudsters but to all sorts of other weirdos.

I had pointed out to the software architect (with a special interest in security, apparently) doing the retweeting that he was exposing the kids further, he didn't care and pointed me in the direction of another account that is retweeting images people have taken of their credit and debit cards. 

WTF?!  Yes, people take photos of their cards and post them.  And, again, this is mainly young teens/adults.  Perhaps they don't understand the risk they are taking, perhaps they don't yet understand the enormity of identity theft. Perhaps they are just so at home with the internet and posting pictures, sharing minutiea of their lives so regularly that the penny just isn't dropping.

I've always tried to explain to COG about not posting photos that allow people to piece together her life.  No town names, street names, school details, but I never thought I would need to say oh yes and don't take photos of your identity papers and bank cards and place them online.

I have had the conversation about not posting sexual photos....once they are out there, they are out there you cannot get them back.  I think she understands.  But now I'm concerned (again), did the parents of these driving license, debit card posting kids get the same lecture from their parents?  Their response to my warning tweets to them implied that they did, they did know, but they needed a reminder.

Please, please keep reminding your children about online security, about data sharing and maybe once in a while we should review our own timelines, our own photos, our own security settings.  It's so easy to suddenly realise you have let your guard down and from what I have seen today there are pariahs sat waiting for that slip up, ready and waiting to move in fast.

Oh, and one final thing, cover up the webcam.  Yes I'm serious, if it doesn't have a built in cover then stick a lump of blue tack on it.....don't believe me then look: http://uk.norton.com/yoursecurityresource/detail.jsp?aid=webcam_hacking

But if they are using it regularly, show them this.

And perhaps show them this too:




 The CEOPS website has some great resources for children of all ages.

There should be a slip, slap, slop on-line campaign.  Time to cover up.





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