Securing Your Second Home: Protect your Digital Data

Posted by Pamela S. on Thursday, August 30th, 2012

Most of us still haven’t learned to secure our second home, the place where we live online. We lock the doors to our homes to protect our families and our possessions, we close the drapes to keep out the neighbor’s prying eyes, but we don’t take the same care with our online home. You need to protect your digital data.

A new study from Career Builder found that most employees don’t follow proper security measures to protect company data. The study was conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 14 to June 4, 2012, and included more than 3,800 workers nationwide.

Of the 26 percent of workers surveyed who reported having work laptops, more than half of these didn’t have a Laptop Security Device.

Some of the other frightening statistics:

“18 percent of workers have clicked on email links or attachments from unknown senders”

“18 percent of workers with office laptops store personal financial information on them”

“52 percent don’t lock their computer when they’re away from their desk.”

Half of the workers surveyed stated that they memorized their passwords; 12 percent admitted that they keep their passwords written on paper at their desk, on their computer or in their purse or wallet.

“25 percent have left their laptop unsecured overnight.”

Many people conduct business over their smart phone and access company email. “5 percent stated that they had lost their phones, or they were stolen.”

It is never a smart idea to share your password or write it down where someone who has access to your laptop or other devices can figure out that this goes with this.  This is difficult if you have a lousy memory, like many of us. If you have dozens of passwords and they are constantly changing, you can’t be expected to remember them all. You should  never leave a laptop unattended or in a place where it could be stolen or compromised in some way.

Of course there is always a chance this could happen: This was just announced last night, a bug affected the Incognito anonymous-browsing feature on Chrome for iOS, wiping out users' saved passwords and some other data, such as search histories. Google announced that it is in the process of restoring the lost information.

Here is some excellent news: Up until recently, if you had embarrassing photos posted on Facebook and erased them, they were still stored in Facebook and could still be viewed. Facebook has

made some significant changes. The photo will be immediately removed from your account and Facebook will permanently remove these photos from the system within 14 to 30 days.

Many employers use social media to screen applicants, so having embarrassing content and photographs on your Facebook may be a career killer. Facebook has many issues to resolve in order to protect your privacy. Many of us have had our accounts hacked. Keep up to date on the latest social media developments on Mashable. It doesn't matter how many good deeds you have done, when one misstep can affect your entire life. Your online life is as important as real life, because it is a reflection of who you are.

Former FBI Assistant Director Tom Sheer has recruited the best from the FBI, DEA, IRS and Secret Service to build a formidable team at Sheer Investigations. Our private investigators have the sensitivity and experience to handle the most delicate investigations.

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