• According to the 2022 Annual Data Breach Report by the Identity Theft Resource Centre, the number of victims has gone up nearly 41.5% from 2021.

• People are starting to feel less safe and are becoming more aware of what threats they may be facing on the internet.

• The last few years have seen a significant increase in the number of data breaches around the world, with peoples’ personal information being compromised.

• The amount of data brokers has also gone up, with hundreds of entities out there.

• Data brokers are considered problematic and even dangerous, as they collect and sell personal information, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, demographic information, online behaviour, and purchasing history. With all this sensitive data available, the risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime goes up as well.

How to delete your information from the internet:

• More and more people are becoming victims of cybercriminals. Numbers have almost doubled since 2019. In 2021 alone, the Federal Trade Commission received nearly 1.4 million reports of identity theft.

• Americans are growing concerned over their lack of control over their personal information and would want their data deleted from the web.

• Americans believe they should have the right to remove some personal information from online searches

• With the threat levels not decreasing, people should become more aware of their digital footprint and how they can minimize their exposure to potential cybercrime incidents.

• What is personal information?

◦ Full name, contact information, date of birth, sex, marital status, race

◦ Property records

◦ Criminal/court records

◦ Financial records

◦ Medical records

◦ Social Security number

◦ History of employment

• How can you remove your personal information from the web?

• Delete obsolete and unused online accounts

• Even if inactive, they can still be processing your info

• Opt out from data broker sites and people search sites

• These entities can potentially collect and even sell your private data

• Use opt-out guides that will help you in the process

• The easiest and most fool proof way is to use a data removal service, like Incogni, which will automatically send opt-out requests on your behalf; it will continue searching and sending removal requests as long as you have an active subscription, remove your information from Google Search results

• Contact the website owner or website host and politely ask them to remove your data

• Head to Google directly and submit a request to have your info removed delete unused apps from your phone

Apps can be collecting plenty of your information, from your location to your online shopping preferences optimize the security settings of Your social media accounts

• Google

• The apps on your smartphone

• Your browser

• How does your personal information appear online?

◦ Through publicly available sources

◦ Through data brokers and people search sites, such as Public Record Search, SearchQuarry, or Sync.me

◦ Through state and federal public records

◦ Through your social media accounts

◦ Through your accounts on various websites, such as ones where you do online shopping

• How can you protect your personal information?

◦ Be aware of what you share

◦ Be cautious of spam mail, phishing, and malware

◦ Ensure you have strong passwords (and 2-step verification)

◦ Use a VPN service

◦ Be careful when connecting to public, unsecured networks

Incogni section:

• Subscribers can keep their data off the market with a 1-year subscription at a 50% discount ($6.49/mo).

• Incogni lists data brokers likely to have customers’ information (such as Social Security number, physical address, phone number, or email address).

• Such data can be used for marketing, recruitment, financial, and health purposes or even further scams and phishing attempts. This can result in unwanted ads, influence loan eligibility or insurance rates, and increase the risk of attacks.

• After a list of potential data brokers is made, removal requests to delete personal data are sent out.

• Even after deleting user information, brokers are still being sent the data removal requests regularly because they tend to collect the person’s information again after some time.

• Users can monitor the process (potential databases found, requests sent, requests completed) on their Incogni dashboard.

How to Block Text Messages.

• As seen in the keyword volume, looking for ways to block text messages is a topic often researched by internet users.

• Spam messages often contain dangerous links that can wreak havoc on our phones if clicked on.

• The issue of blocking text messages is one that many less tech-savvy people can struggle with, thus, this is an opportunity to educate them.

• With people more concerned about privacy, this topic can help them improve their data security.

How to stop spam texts? Blocking text messages 101 Second Headline

• What are spam text messages?

• Why is blocking spam text messages important?

• It can help protect your privacy and personal information from scammers and hackers.

• Information that there are several ways to block unwanted messages people can try, mainly depending on the type of phone/operating system they have.

• Why are you receiving spam messages?

◦ You have your cell phone number listed on your social media accounts

◦ You may have replied to spam messages in the past

◦ You called a toll-free number at some point

◦ A website/app where you have an account with your cell phone number suffered a data leak/data breach

◦ Your contact information has fallen into the hands of data brokers who are now selling it.

• How to block spam texts on an iPhone?

◦ Step-by-step guide for blocking text messages on an iPhone

◦ How to filter messages from unknown senders on an iPhone

◦ Information on how to unblock a number

• How to block spam texts on Android-operated phones?

◦ Step-by-step guide for blocking text messages through Google Messages

◦ Step-by-step guide for blocking text messages through the Phone app

◦ Information on how to unblock a number

• How to block texts using your carrier?

◦ T-Mobile/Sprint: https://account.t-mobile.com or the My T-Mobile app

◦ Verizon: https://www.verizonwireless.com/my-verizon/ or the Verizon Smart Family app

◦ AT&T: The AT&T Active Armor app, which is available through the Google Play Store or App Store

• Tips for dealing with spam and unwanted text messages

◦ How to identify spam text messages?

◦ Do not respond to suspiciously-looking text messages

◦ Never click on links provided in the text messages

• Tips for keeping your cell phone number private

◦ Remove it from unused accounts

◦ Remove it from social media accounts

◦ Remove yourself from data broker and people search sites, for example, with the help of Incogni, which automatically sends opt-out requests on your behalf

◦ Be careful not to post it on any public forums

◦ Optimize your privacy settings, especially check your data-sharing settings

◦ Use a VPN

• What is Whaling?

Whaling attacks: everything you need to know

• This keyword has a high search volume, meaning there’s a lot of attention on the topic. Though there are plenty of articles covering it, many of them are not very thorough. Only some of them go into details such as common whaling tactics and preventative measures.

• Research shows that 59% of organizations had executives targeted by whaling attacks, 46% of those reported attacks were successful. This is a topic that is relevant to all businesses, large and small. With so much to lose, there should be great interest in solutions to such a prevalent problem.

• Whaling is one of the most sophisticated and personalized forms of scams and relies heavily on personal information. Incogni offers a direct solution to this problem and reduces the chance of being targeted in the first place.

• Intro

◦ Whaling attacks are on the rise, with a 131% increase between 2020 and 2021.

◦ It’s a highly sophisticated form of phishing that can be very difficult to spot due to a lack of malicious URLs or weaponized attachments in most cases.

◦ Victims of whaling attacks usually suffer huge financial losses as well as reputational damage.

◦ Motivations for a whaling attack may include stealing money, control, supply chain attack, corporate espionage, malware, and personal vendetta.

• What is a whaling attack?

◦ Whaling, also known as CEO fraud, uses methods such as email and website spoofing to trick high-level targets such as CEOs into performing specific actions such as revealing sensitive data or transferring money.

◦ Attacks often appear to come from someone senior or influential from within the organization being targeted.

◦ Whaling attacks are usually highly sophisticated. Malicious actors often use methods that exploit established trust structures to fool the target.

◦ Whaling emails are very often personalized, including details such as the target's name, job title, or other relevant information that the criminals have collected from a variety of sources.

• Types of Whaling attacks

◦ Email + follow-up phone call. Cybercriminals will often follow up on a whaling email with a phone call confirming the email request. This social engineering tactic both corroborates the email request and makes the victim complacent as they have also had a 'real world' interaction.

◦ Impersonating a trusted partner. The most recent and sophisticated whaling attacks have access to information about suppliers or partners of the target organization, especially if they advertise their partners such as charities, law firms, think tanks, or academic institutions.

◦ Impersonating colleagues. Criminals will either compromise or spoof a colleague’s email address in order to trick other employees into believing the attack is a legitimate request. Often, this comes from a “senior” and is targeting a junior within the organization.

◦ Whaling via social media. Social media provides cybercriminals with a means to research and contact senior executives. Victims are also usually less vigilant in social situations. Scammers may try to befriend the target or pretend to be a potential business partner, love interest, peer, or an authority figure.

◦ Baiting. Criminals may leave an infected USB drive at the target’s office, or gym locker, or even mail it to their home with the hopes that they will try to use it.

◦ Convey a sense of urgency that makes the target act quickly. Usually, this is done by implying adverse consequences if the requested action isn’t performed right away.

◦ Use spoofed email addresses and names. The sender’s email address may not match the domain of the company the email claims to be from. Often, the scammer will substitute lookalike letters, for example, an “m” with an “rn”.

◦ Requests for money transfers or personal information.

◦ A domain age that does not match the domain age of the trusted correspondent.

• Examples of whaling attacks

◦ 2015: A Hong Kong subsidiary of Ubiquiti Networks Inc. lost $47 million due to a whaling email attack targeted at a finance employee.

◦ 2016: A criminal, posing as the CEO of Snapchat tricked a high-ranking employee into giving the attacker employee payroll information.

◦ 2017: A small business owner lost $50,000 to a man-in-the-middle whaling attack.

◦ 2018: A European cinema company called Pathé lost $21.5 million to attackers posing as high-ranking employees that emailed the CEO and CFO with highly confidential financial transaction requests.

◦ 2020: A whaling attack that sent a malicious link to the co-founder of an Australian hedge fund with fraud resulted in the business closing down.

• How to protect yourself from a whaling attack

◦ Educate employees to keep alert and aware of whaling tactics and to maintain a healthy level of suspicion when it comes to important information or financial transactions. Then have your IT department carry out mock whaling exercises to test your staff and keep them on their toes.

◦ To see who is sending an email, hover the cursor over a name in an email to reveal its full address. Also, check if it perfectly matches the company name and format to avoid falling for a spoof.

◦ Exercise caution and care when posting and sharing information on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Cybercriminals can use birthdays, hobbies, holidays, job titles, promotions, and relationships to craft more sophisticated attacks.

◦ Automatically flag any emails coming from outside your network for review.

◦ Use anti-phishing software that provides services such as URL screening and link validation.

◦ Change the procedures at your organization so that two people have to sign off on payments.

◦ Use DNS authentication services that use DMARC, DKIM, and SPF protocols to identify whether an email sent from a specific domain can be trusted.

◦ Use anti-impersonation software to identify the social-engineering-based techniques that are common to whaling emails and block them.

◦ Cybercriminals use techniques to evade detection making it impossible to stay 100% safe from whaling attacks. Organizations should put checks and processes in place to mitigate the possible damages.

◦ Use a personal information removal service like Incogni to keep scammers from buying your data. This will lower the likelihood of an attack and reduce the level of personalization and effectiveness of a scam.

• Subscribers can keep their data off the market with a 1-year subscription at a 50% discount ($5.79/month).

• Incogni lists data brokers likely to have customers’ information (such as Social Security number, physical address, phone number, or email address).

• Such data can be used for marketing, recruitment, financial, and health purposes or even further scams and whaling attempts. This can result in unwanted ads, influence loan eligibility or insurance rates, and increase the risk of attacks.

• After a list of potential data brokers is made, removal requests to delete personal data are sent out.

• Even after deleting user information, brokers are still being sent the data removal requests regularly because they tend to collect the person’s information again after some time.

• Users can monitor the process (potential databases found, requests sent, requests completed) on their Incogni dashboard.

How to Remove Personal Information from The Internet

Remove online information

Secure Your Data with Incogni's Subscription-based Service

Incogni is a subscription-based service designed to empower users in exercising their right to have data brokers erase their personal information. By automating the removal of user data from numerous data brokers' databases, Incogni conducts periodic sweeps to prevent brokers from re-adding this information.