More than a third of respondents (39 per cent) from the UAE do not know what data about them is publicly available on the internet, according to a recent survey by Kaspersky called Digital Superstitions,.

For those who recognised and are aware about their own personal information being available online, the survey showed that some have even tried to completely remove it from the web. However, less than half of them (44 per cent) did not take any action. Among them,16 per cent are sure that it is impossible to remove information about themselves from the Internet, while 10 per cent do not know how to do it.

According to those respondents from the UAE who know what data about them is publicly available on the internet, the most frequently mentioned data types are full names (76 per cent), personal photos (58 per cent) and e-mail addresses (50 per cent). Moreover, some people let their personal phone number (44 per cent), place of work or study (41 per cent) and address of residence or registration (50 per cent) be openly available online.

However, it is also possible for personal data to end up online due to data breaches and data leakages on a company’s side. A fourth of the respondents (41 per cent) are worried about such a possibility: they believe that they may run into trouble. 12 per cent noted that they are only concerned about the possible leakage of bank card data. Over a quarter of respondents (27 per cent) are not worried at all and believe that their personal data cannot be used for harm.

“Unfortunately, users often underestimate personal data protection, despite that the leaked or stolen data can be used by cybercriminals in their fraudulent purposes – they can sell it, use it to hack personal accounts or for identity theft. Nevertheless, according to our survey, 49 per cent of the respondents keep scans of passports and other confidential documents in correspondence in instant messengers, email inbox and social networks. You should not do this: under certain circumstances, attackers can steal such information,” said Maher Yamout, senior security researcher, global research & analysis team at Kaspersky. “There’s a simple basic test – to check what other people can know about you from scratch, type your first and last name between quotes in an Internet search engine and analyse the results”.

To ensure personal data is protected properly, Kaspersky recommends following these security tips:

Do not store or post confidential information (phone number, passport scan, etc.) on social networks, including in correspondence.

Share confidential data in encrypted form, for example in an archive with a password.

Ensure your accounts are well protected: use strong and unique passwords for each service (from 12 characters with letters in different case, numbers and special characters), store them in password managers.

Set up two-factor authentication in those services that allow it. · Use a reliable security solution like Kaspersky Premium – it will prevent you from finding yourself on a phishing site with the stolen personal or payment information.

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