Protecting Yourself Against Doxing

Doxing is the act of searching for and publishing someone's personal information online. It often involves collecting documents to learn more about a person or company. This malicious tactic is used for harassment, revenge, identity theft or even potential violence.

How Doxing Works

Hackers identify targets and scour the internet for information like home addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, private phone numbers, email addresses or photos. They use public records, social media and real estate websites to gather this data and then publish it online.

Protect Yourself

The N.C. Department of Information Technology recommends taking proactive steps to limit your online presence and remove personally identifiable information whenever possible.

Check Your Social Media

• Check privacy settings and implement the strongest controls possible.
• Deactivate or delete unused profiles.
• Review your friends and followers and remove those you don't know.
• Avoid posting anything you wouldn't want everyone to see.
• Remove personal information (e.g., birthdays, telephone numbers, etc.) from your posts.
• Search for tagged photos of you and your family and remove the tags.

Be Aware of Social Engineering

• Educate yourself on the signs of phishing.
• Never respond to email requests for personal information.
• Verify the legitimacy of emails before clicking links or opening attachments.

Check the Internet

• Conduct frequent internet searches about yourself and your family.
• Remove personal email addresses and contact information from websites.
• Avoid storing unencrypted sensitive information in the cloud or on your computer.
• Don't sign up for accounts on websites if you don’t have to do so.

Secure Your Devices

• Keep your devices updated with the latest software and antivirus solutions.
• Reconsider using geo-tracking features. If you do use them, review their privacy settings.
• Delete unneeded applications to ensure they are not tracking you or collecting data.
• Limit the use of third-party applications. Don’t allow them to access your social media accounts, friends lists or address books.
• Have experts regularly check your devices for compromises.

Review Your Passwords

• Use a passphrase instead of a password. Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.
• Use at least 10 characters and include uppercase and lowercase letters, numerals and symbols.
• Change passwords or passphrases regularly and don’t share them.
• Use unique passwords for each of your online accounts and applications.

Monitor Your Credit

• Monitor credit reports monthly and consider purchasing credit monitoring from a trusted service.
• Consider getting a security freeze to block access to your credit.