NZR: Sensible Internet Security Advice

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Hash: SHA1

Cyber Security Tip ST05-013

Guidelines for Publishing Information Online

Remember that the internet is a public resource. Avoid putting

anything online that you don't want the public to see or that you may

want to retract.

Why is it important to remember that the internet is public?

Because the internet is so accessible and contains a wealth of

information, it has become a popular resource for communicating, for

researching topics, and for finding information about people. It may

seem less intimidating than actually interacting with other people

because there is a sense of anonymity. However, you are not really

anonymous when you are online, and it is just as easy for people to

find information about you as it is for you to find information about

them. Unfortunately, many people have become so familiar and

comfortable with the internet that they may adopt practices that make

them vulnerable. For example, although people are typically wary of

sharing personal information with strangers they meet on the street,

they may not hesitate to post that same information online. Once it is

online, it can be accessed by a world of strangers, and you have no

idea what they might do with that information.

What guidelines can you follow when publishing information on the internet?

* View the internet as a novel, not a diary - Make sure you are

comfortable with anyone seeing the information you put online.

Expect that people you have never met will find your page; even if

you are keeping an online journal or blog, write it with the

expectation that it is available for public consumption. Some

sites may use passwords or other security restrictions to protect

the information, but these methods are not usually used for most

web sites. If you want the information to be private or restricted

to a small, select group of people, the internet is probably not

the best forum.

* Be careful what you advertise - In the past, it was difficult to

find information about people other than their phone numbers or

address. Now, an increasing amount of personal information is

available online, especially because people are creating personal

web pages with information about themselves. When deciding how

much information to reveal, realize that you are broadcasting it

to the world. Supplying your email address may increase the amount

of spam you receive (see Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing

Attacks for more information).

* Realize that you can't take it back - Once you publish something

online, it is available to other people and to search engines. You

can change or remove information after something has been

published, but it is possible that someone has already seen the

original version. Even if you try to remove the page(s) from the

internet, someone may have saved a copy of the page or used

excerpts in another source. Some search engines "cache" copies of

web pages so that they open faster; these cached copies may be

available after a web page has been deleted or altered. Some web

browsers may also maintain a cache of the web pages a user has

visited, so the original version may be stored in a temporary file

on the user's computer. Think about these implications before

publishing information--once something is out there, you can't

guarantee that you can completely remove it.

As a general practice, let your common sense guide your decisions

about what to post online. Before you publish something on the

internet, determine what value it provides and consider the

implications of having the information available to the public.

Identity theft is an increasing problem, and the more information an

attacker can gather about you, the easier it is to pretend to be you.

Behave online the way you would behave in your daily life, especially

when it involves taking precautions to protect yourself.

_________________________________________________________________

Authors: Mindi McDowell, Matt Lytle, Jason Rafail

_________________________________________________________________

This document can also be found at

Copyright 2005 Carnegie Mellon University

Terms of use

For instructions on subscribing to or unsubscribing from this

mailing list, visit .

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iQEVAwUBQrnJ6BhoSezw4YfQAQIppwgAjgHthf3LmqHZPJ4jLYLuodmX2DMiMG1D

a5Qxz/dVHs6ys2RwcowSwYUesI1QkIuS5KdolXUOMuC7kiql4IcT0A4Hf+ewIjwP

V90lcHrvYVIERUmWVmBZefO/H6JhmayOptNpdfzCreOYePv2zr3jz6pXt9rpUgNw

BFbaITEhrvm4hT6COnkepOkse/pEmvqCZLwk08e9zBqudHUNqyKMteoHQJFBBd96

SThjkc4CTOh6FOcSbHz/6oHk9SWYPhFy6YmzT6JpdLUFniPm5RwvscTrWG2sMZ2e

eheQAzFahqEP6H6bryPu4SS6Hb7LzwvytDxXxkqxCe59k3m8g6MRPQ==

=RxLc

-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----