Reputation Management: Duking It Out With Doxing
Reputation Management: Duking It Out With Doxing
Apart from cancel culture and politics, one of the more heinous threats lurking in the internet's shadows is the slander industry. Unsuspecting individuals are frequently the victims of websites that promote slanderous, frequently unverified information about individuals. This false and vilifying information persists in perpetuity on the internet and has the potential to tarnish an otherwise spotless reputation.
Online access to personal information can be used to blackmail, slander, or steal identities. How do these websites affect individuals, and how can victims defend themselves? The only option may be to hire a company that specializes in erasing the digital footprints of unwittingly slandered victims.
"In an era when digital reputation is everything, online presence and digital breadcrumbs are critical," says Laura Hoffner, chief of staff at Concentric Advisors, a security and risk management firm.
The slander industry's intended message is that there is little you can do about it if you fall within its target demographics. However, she cautions, this is not true. To begin, victims can utilize a service to determine what is already available. Then, victims can make informed choices about which information to remove and which details to retain.
"The critical point is that you have a choice. You can retain control over your digital footprint and, consequently, your online identity," Hoffner told TechNewsWorld.
Hoffner's assessment that all is not lost if a website slanders you is not marketing bluster. She served as a naval intelligence officer for 12 years, assisting special operations forces throughout the world. Lt. Commander Hoffner joined the Concentric team in the fall of 2020 after transitioning to the Naval Reserves.
Growing Slander Network
As numerous victims attest, an ecosystem of websites exists solely for the purpose of destroying reputations, confirmed Max Anderson, Concentric's engagement officer. However, the endgame is more than destroying people's online reputations.
As with the seemingly constant occurrences of ransomware attacks, the purveyors of slander are motivated by profit.
"The proprietors of these websites are oblivious to anyone's reputation. Their objective is to profit from the victim's self-esteem and the offender's motivation," he explained to TechNewsWorld.
Security firms that specialize in slander removal or reputation management services, he admitted, may be legitimate businesses. However, some purported clean-up services are no better than the liars.
"There are legitimate service providers who assist clients who have been targeted by individuals with nefarious motives with reputation management issues," Anderson explained.
Effectively combating this issue, on the other hand, is time consuming and quite costly. Any company offering to remove your information from a slanderous website for a few hundred dollars is likely the same company that posted it in the first place, he suggested.
"Even if they are not owned by the same people, the website owner and the information removal consultants collaborate closely to share profits," Anderson explained.
Online Reputation Has Serious Consequences
Today, we live in a completely digital world. Prospective employers, friends, family, and partners are constantly analyzing a person's online profile.
A single negative post may be easily excusable. However, Anderson noted that defending your reputation becomes significantly more difficult when a slanderous article about you is picked up by multiple sites.
"The harm is in the volume, not the content," he explained.
Frequently, individuals are unaware of the amount of personal information that accumulates on social media platforms and online data banks. Individuals' personal and professional lives are frequently entwined.
Criminals can make arrogant remarks and false statements without fear of legal or public repercussions. Family photographs and involvement in a variety of activities provide slander operators with an abundance of details to twist into seemingly accurate narratives.
Restoring a slander victim's digital reputation requires a strong commitment and resistance to intimidation. A more effective defense strategy is to prevent slander before it occurs. This can be accomplished by securing the flow of information that you plant online.
Monitoring and responding to any negative reputational information as soon as possible is critical," Anderson advised.
Preparing for Battle
Anderson noted that slanderous articles have a tendency to spread quickly. Concentric employs a proactive approach with its clients in order to stay ahead of potential attacks.
Concentric, for example, monitors its clients on social media and the open web on a regular basis. The objective is to identify and alert clients to potentially problematic pieces in advance.
"We also offer a solution called Concentric360 that purges nearly 300 data brokerage sites of Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This significantly increases the difficulty of someone doxing (or doxxing) you or stealing your identity. Additionally, we can identify and delete phony social media accounts," he explained.
Of course, additional strategies are required to protect people's personal information in a proactive manner. Concentric's intelligence teams, for example, monitor online discussions about the company's clients. Its digital privacy teams are constantly on the lookout for and removing potentially compromising data.
"If you can locate and remove the information quickly, your efforts will be quite successful. When information circulates across multiple websites that are then indexed by search engines, the problem becomes more difficult to solve," Anderson explained.
Minimize Doxing Risk
The term Doxing derives from the phrase "dropping documents," and it is a real issue that is unlikely to disappear anytime soon.
Doxing is the act of an unauthorized individual collecting a person's private information across multiple platforms. After that, the "doxer" publishes the information in an attempt to humiliate or embarrass the individual or company.
The data is easily accessible through public database research, hacking, or social engineering. According to cybersecurity experts, one of the best ways to protect yourself against a doxing attack is to exercise control over what you say online.
Yes, you have the right to self-expression. However, you also have the option of limiting your exposure and refraining from providing potential attackers with a wealth of information about you.
It is critical that you exercise caution when posting information online. Attempts to conceal your true identity behind a social media or other online forum username are rarely successful. Be assured that hackers can peer behind the so-called anonymity curtain and cast a negative light on you.
Don't Rely on Digital Security
The slander industry could very well be considered a subset of internet fraud. Cybersecurity threats and numerous mitigation strategies are inextricably linked.
According to Robert McKay, senior vice president for risk solutions at Neustar, one major issue with today's approach to cybersecurity risk is that the security measures in place are no longer effective at protecting customers from fraud.
"The majority of fraud-fighting efforts are predicated on the assumption that people's online and offline data is secure, which is simply no longer true," he told TechNewsWorld.
Almost every organization that stores personally identifiable information has been hacked, he said. This means that fraudsters can purchase anyone's PII on the dark web.
Due to the widespread availability of this data, any authentication system that relies on an individual's knowledge of personal information — such as a social security number or email address — to determine whether that individual is who they claim to be is rendered ineffective.
Additionally, the same holds true for the ostensibly more obscure knowledge-based authentication (KBA) information that is frequently used in challenge questions. It is relatively easy for fraudsters to harvest this information through social media activity (all those online quizzes!) or by directly interacting with a target via social engineering.
Perhaps a prudential word is obvious here. Clean up your festering personal information from wherever you find it before it's too late. Passwords and cyber software do little to safeguard your personally identifiable information (PII) online.
