How Hackers Utilize Your Digital Footprints Against You?

To understand the methodology of hackers, we first need to understand the term called ‘Digital Footprinting.' The Digital Footprints are the records or the traces we leave behind as we use the internet for various online actions such as email, instant messaging, voice calling or using the social media channels. We share information about what we like, what do we choose, our future appointments our login details and most importantly our contact details. Your digital shadow includes bank records, credit card details, travel itineraries, browsing history, information taken from smartphone apps, etc. Hackers can use this information for many reasons, such as,

1. Identity theft: 
The confidential personal information obtained through the digital footprinting can be used by hackers for ‘Identity theft.' With this, the fraudulent can gather the confidential personal information or commit a cybercrime under the victim’s identity. A publically shared personal photograph can bring havoc in minutes.

2. Personal Data usage: 
Hackers can gather personal data and information from the digital footprint left on various website’s information forms, apps and especially the social media website. The personal photographs, videos, information related to the personal details can be misused to generate revenue online without the owner’s knowledge.

3. Advertisements: 
Various websites (especially e-commerce) use a person’s digital footprint to predict the choices of that individual by the information collected from that person’s digital footprint such as race, demographic traits, sexual orientation, political & religious views, the genre of product choices for online shopping, etc.

4. Behavioral Data usage: 
The behavioral data is also used by banks and credit card companies against their customers. A customer’s purchase behavior data is collected from the digital footprint and used to calculate that client’s ability to pay! The data is used as the basis to reduce credit limits or increase interest rates.

5.Credit card frauds: 
Leaving your credit card details open digitally is leaving the door open and waiting for the hackers to cause fraud. Sometimes the hackers also use homemade devices such as skimmers to steal information. Another type shimmers can gather information from the card’s chip. The latest type called scammers can inject malware directly into the cash machine.

6. Password Sniffers: 
Password sniffers is a software which is installed on the host computers to scan and record password and all the incoming and outgoing network traffic. Using this, hackers can crack the passwords and gain access to your online personal profiles.

        The personal information gathered from the digital footprints kept siloed on the servers and most usually provided to the third parties for marketing. The infamous hacker group ‘Anonymous’ had attacked Sony’s PlayStation Network in 2011, and around 77 million users accounts were compromised. In another example, ‘Lifelogging’ allows collecting an enormous amount of personal data of an individual’s life and behavior. The Lifeloggers wear computers and keep track of their entire lives or personal lives. Such massive amount of digital footprint makes that individual vulnerable to many cyber crimes.