Roskachestvo explained what personal data scammers are hunting for

Personal data is sensitive information,that allows you to identify a person, which also includes information that the user shares confidentially - email, SMS messages, recordings of telephone conversations, browser search history and other data stored on the device. Both IT giants and scammers want access to this data. Each for their own purposes.

Every day in Russia, 129.8 million Internet users leave their personal data on websites and social networks, some of which become the object of a leak.

According to a report from Positive Technologies, forIn the first quarter of 2022, as a result of cyber-attacks, organizations most often faced the leakage of confidential information (45%) and disruption of the main activity (30%). Attacks on individuals compromised confidential data (55%) and financial information (25%).

Experts from the Center for Digital Expertise of Roskachestvo tell how the company's personal data is used and where scammers find personal data.

All for the target

Companies use all sorts of datausers to set up targeted advertising. The larger the player in the market, the more data about users he collects, and the more sophisticated he is in his methods. For example, the Big Five giants Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are taking a particularly close look at user preferences.

As a result of such close attention, a personstarts to see ads for things or services that have recently been briefly searched on Google, discussed in VK correspondence, or simply mentioned in a conversation with a colleague at lunchtime. Yes, gadgets “hear” and “read” everything.

Collect personal information to improvequality of services or to create a more accurate portrait of a potential consumer are the best motivations for companies. However, there are risks that personal data will fall into the hands of fraudsters and be used for personal gain.

You have already "inherited"

Moreover, everywhere. Once you have entered the Internet, you have already left a digital footprint. More:

• Browser history

The browser can keep its own log (cache) of URLs that have been opened. The cache may even store some page elements (such as graphics).

In addition, online services such as Google,maintain their own history records to analyze user activity. Some of this data is anonymous, but in practice, third parties, including fraudsters, can decrypt it and identify a specific user.

• Online stores and social networks

Every published comment, entered password, every completed transaction - everything is recorded in the database and at some point can be used for other purposes.

• State databases

National and regional government agencies also control vast data warehouses that record various types of citizen activities.

Such systems have a high level of protection, butIt is difficult to completely eliminate the risk of data theft. Also, one cannot write off the human factor, for example, unscrupulous employees of state institutions, who theoretically can “leak” data.

• Public archives

Suppose the user once createda site on a topic that was interesting to him, but after a while he got bored with it, and he deleted the site. However, there is a good chance that that content is currently available at the Internet Archive. This massive directory collection of over 702 billion web pages has been maintained since 1996.

It is not uncommon for online profiles of certain social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn to be retained in one form or another long after they have been deleted.

• Darknet

The "dark web" consists of content that, likegenerally cannot be found using the major Internet search engines, and can only be accessed using tools that use specially configured network settings.

The information there is transmitted securely and anonymously withusing a certain class of encrypted connections - VPN. We are accustomed to perceive VPN as a safe tool, but with its help they are encrypted in the world of the criminal underground of the Internet. And thanks to Tor technology, anyone can hide their movements on the Internet, remaining virtually anonymous, although this requires special network add-ons that are not available to ordinary users.

Much of the data stolen from servers and private devices ends up on the Dark Web, where it is successfully sold and bought.

The fight for privacy

The only sure way to keep the fullprivacy - not going online, but in the digital world this does not seem viable. A more realistic option is to use privacy-focused software and refuse to mindlessly share personal information. For example, a good, paid VPN will help hide your location, and an onion-routing browser like Tor will keep you anonymous while browsing the Web.

Source: Press Release Roskachestvo