The other day a friend of mine tagged me on one of those Facebook chain post. The kind that is suppose to be “fun,” asking you to fill out your nicknames, the last three places you have lived, favorite color, best friends name, high school mascot, etc. all personal information right?
When you think about it though, you are putting all of your personal information out there in one place, making it easy for anyone to take. Of course, most of that information is already on the internet, but the difference here is, it’s not all in one place. What made me think twice about this post, and what sparked this Periscope, was Chalene Johnson’s recent hack. All of her online accounts were hacked.
On her podcast, “Build Your Tribe,” Chalene talks about the hack and what happened. It wasn’t that the hackers got her passwords. It was that they figured out the answers to her security questions. These hackers took over every account Chalene has, locking her out. So now I have this whole new perspective on how hackers get your information.
Looking at this Facebook chain post I can see how easy it would be for anyone to piece the answers together. So when I was tagged in this post I instantly said, “Nope! I can’t do it!” Moral of the story, think twice before filling out posts like this on Facebook and across social media — including those email chain letters grandma sends you. Remember, somebody is always watching.