Preventing Cyberattacks Using Fake Identity: Keeping Privacy To YourselfPosted by Eyerys on June 21st, 2019 There is no doubt that scams, spam, and phishing attacks are three of the most dreaded things on the internet. In the modern days of the internet, many people are giving out their email address or phone number when signing up for a service. While these people for a multitude of reasons may not use their real names for registering, there are always some trailing security and privacy issues. Yes, you can certainly use some security precautions, like using two-factor authentication, to secure your account. But for many reasons, the methods involve you in securing your own accounts. If ever you fall for phishing scams, or that service you've signed in into got hacked, or when losing your smartphone, the information you have will be breached, and things will certainly point back to you. This is why SIM swapping hacks have occurred, for example. This kind of attack allows hackers to take control of your account by stealing your phone number, claiming ownership of it, and use it to bypass two-factor authentication messages. As attacks like these become more common, it’s worth taking extra precautions when locking down your personal contact information. A way to improve security of your accounts that use two-factor authentication, is to use a physical device that only you can have. Using authentication tools like USB security keys, for example, you can secure your Gmail account to prevent unauthorized access. It’s also worth setting up additional PIN protection on your phone number account through your mobile provider to avoid impersonators from making changes without your consent. And, of course, using a strong password is also a must, and here, a good password manager app can help a lot. These are certainly ways to protect yourselves, and yes they do help. What's more, tech companies are trying their best to keep up with the trends by introducing new ways and improvising the existing security products. But still, you should never be a 100 percent sure you are totally protected. That is because there are multiple points of failure. As previously mentioned, this is because the methods involve you in securing your own accounts. And if ever your account gets breached, whatever you do will certainly points back to you. To counter this, it's worth to be someone else. In this case, you can be a virtual person by creating a virtual fake identity. You can do this using various dedicated online services, and you can do it for free. If you really want to hide your identity, you can use fake data generated by the tools when signing up to new services. By not offering services your actual email, phone number, or credit card information, you’re at least one step away from potential cyberattacks should those services suffer a breach. Here are ways to do that: Like it? Share it!More by this author |