Online Reputation Management In The Times Of Increased Cyberbullying And Cyber Offences
Cyber trolling or bullying is no longer restricted to online chat rooms and message boards. The fact that a substantial amount of information about businesses and individuals is available through an easy search, has its own implications. As a result of this fact, every person who uses the internet must be aware of cyber crimes and cyberbullying. It is crucial to take thoughtful and preventive measures so that you do not prey to cybercrimes that can prove to be destructive for your business and personal image.
What Exactly Is Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is usually carried out on the internet and on digital devices like computers and smartphones. It comprises of a wide range of strategies from sending out aggressive messages to someone or creating bad posts about them online to sharing someone’s personal information through a public forum.
In light of the fact that information is easily accessible through the world wide web, in a way this is a good thing but it has its own repercussions as well. In case this information becomes accessible to the people with malicious intent, it can be compromised and used in the wrong way.
Cyberbullying can be a common threat to everyone who knows the internet. Especially if you have left a breadcrumb trail that identifies you online.
It is important for you to be aware of a simple fact that if you share your information publically on the internet, your information is vulnerable to getting compromised. Anyone can see your information and use it against you and this is when cyberbullying happens.
The most prominent forms of cyberbullying include the following:
- Doxxing
- Public Sharing
- Cancel Culture
Doxxing
The term Doxxing refers to the activity of gathering documents or ‘docs’ about some individuals with the intention of using the document for malicious purposes. Cybercriminals look for the documents through public records and social media websites, they accumulate data social media content like posts and pictures along with collecting more private information that is found online like voter registration information, important financial documents, home address and information about your friends and family.
People into such malicious activities put together various pieces of content and publish it online, this piece of data becomes a public record and you have no control over it.
The doxxing method is usually used for ordinary people. At times it is just the hackers who want to create trouble for some people or strangers but quite frequently it can be done by someone who is present in the same online community. The weapon of every hacker is compromising personal data.
Instances of how the information can be compromised include general online harassment, hacking someone’s email accounts or social media accounts, or posting fake news through someone’s account.
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