Blogs can put you at risk of identity theft
Whether blogging for personal reasons or for your business, you need to understand the risks and prevent them to ensure safe blogging. Cybercriminals sift through blog posts leaving malicious comments and links hoping someone clicks on them. This can harm your reputation. These cybercriminals can also read through your blogs and pull all the personal information you have given out to piece together your identity and steal it for further criminal activities. This is something IT companies see quite often, so we’re taking you through a few guidelines for safe blogging.
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Risks
- Even if you think you’re safe blogging anonymously or under a fake name, your details can still be discovered
- What you post online stays online as it is on a public domain, meaning the post is accessible even after you have deleted it as it can remain in the search engines cached files or on servers
- Even if you have a small audience, your blog is still accessible to everyone
- Cybercriminals and spammers can comment on your blog leaving malicious links or abusive and threatening content
- Children could accidentally reveal personal information about themselves as well as images, leaving them vulnerable online
- Blogs outside the EU are not subject to GDPR rules, therefore these blogs are not guaranteed to comply with the latest data protection laws
- Blogs are still subject to laws. If you post something untrue about individuals or a company, there can be major consequences
- You could potentially regret the content you put up as it is viewable by future employers, friends, family and your current employer
Take action
Things to watch out for
- Non EU blog sites
- Harmful or offensive comments on your blog
Report it!
- Remove any malicious comments
- Phone us straight away on 0800 680 00 88 and report it to Action Fraud
Protect yourself and your business
- Only disclose the information you want the public to know about you. Never reveal any confidential information or pictures you wouldn’t want the public to see
- To make your blog more secure when it comes to your personal information, use a different name or remain anonymous. Alternatively you can make your blog private
- Enable comment moderation so all comments have to be approved before being public. This means you can delete any harmful ones
- Review who has access to edit your site and change when necessary
- Be carful about any thoughts or opinions you share as these can offend people and have consequences
- Ensure any children blogging are aware of the dangers and are blogging responsibly
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