In today’s digital era, where everything seems to be connected in some way or another to everything else, keeping important or sensitive files safe can seem like hard work.
And if those important files just happen to be intimate photos of you, then keeping them safe is obviously a pretty important job. However judging by the frequency we hear about leaked photos popping up on the Internet and the tales of blackmail that often accompany them, it’s a job that many are not doing particularly well.
Regardless of your position on the merits of taking such photos of yourself, everyone has the right to do it, and they also have the right to keep them private. But with prying eyes in every corner of the Internet, that privacy isn’t something that is guaranteed. And this means if we want it, we have to follow good information security habits.
The days of taking photos with digital cameras are mostly over. These days, if we’re snapping sexy photos, it’s probably going to be the smartphone. And this is where good security begins.
We can never guarantee that our phone isn’t going to fall into the wrong hands at some point in time. So keep it protected with a hard-to-guess passcode (this means not 000000 – yes, we’re looking at you Kanye West!) or a biometric feature like a fingerprint scanner.
Most phones have a feature that allows you to locate, lock and even erase your phone should it get lost or stolen. These features are available both on Android and Apple phones, so consider turning these features on if you tend to lose your devices.
And for particularly sensitive files, you can add an extra layer of security such as a photo lock app that prevents third parties from seeing particular photos until another PIN is entered.
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These days, when you take a photo, it doesn’t necessarily means it stays on your phone. Most smartphone users enable cloud back-ups, which means those photos are also sent to “the cloud”. Yes, this means the Internet. It basically means they sit inside your online storage account (e.g. your iCloud account.) This is great for not losing photos, but it also presents another potential security vulnerability, because it means crooks no longer need your phone to see your photos. Instead they need access to your online storage account…
Most leaked photo scandals you hear about in the entertainment news are most likely the result of targeted phishing scams aimed at gaining access to your cloud storage account. Crooks target – for example – celebrities, to try and get them to give up their online storage account credentials, and this is frequently done with phishing scams.
The bad news is that phishing scams are easy, effective and quick. The good news is that once you know how they work, they’re much easier to spot.
Most phishing scams work by tricking a victim into visiting a spoof login page which asks for a username and password, which is then stolen. The login page may look like the real thing, but it’s on a spoof website, so make sure you check the web address before you enter your details, and always try and avoid clicking links on emails or messages which could theoretically take you to any website. For more information on phishing scams and how they work, see our article here.
As always, protect your online accounts with good passwords, and this includes online storage accounts were your photos get backed up. You’ve heard it all before – lowercase, uppercase, digits and symbols and no words. If you use an easy-to-guess password, you’re practically handing the keys to your storage account to crooks – and with it, your photos!
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Two-Factor-Authentication (2FA) protects your online accounts by asking for an additional piece of information other than the username and password. This means if you do fall for a phishing scam and give a crook your password, they won’t be able to access your account because they don’t have that additional information. This can be a code sent to your phone or a code generated by an app on your phone. If your online accounts support 2FA (and most do) then enable it for extra piece of mind! Learn more here.
Sexy snaps may serve a purpose for those in an intimate relationship, but if that purpose lapses, consider hitting the delete button wherever they may be stored. Remember that if they exist, there is always a risk that someone may get their hands on them.
Finally, remember that one of the most popular ways that intimate photos wind up in the public domain has nothing to do with hacking, phishing or any other type of cyber intrusion. It’s because the person who they were shared with exposed them. So always think carefully before choosing to share this type of content with others.