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is it one more tool criminals can use to narrow their search for your personal details, it is also a
common password security question.

4. Using Your Birthday or Other Meaningful Numbers – While a string of four to eight
numbers might seem random a criminal will be able to use a birthday or street address to verify
if the information they are accumulating is all for the same person.

5. Sharing a Username with an Email Address – linking a username with an email address
can simplify a criminal’s search for your personal information. Using trial and error a criminal
can add common email providers to your username, run a search and pull up your social media
accounts and any other sites where you have used that email address to create a profile. Some
email providers including Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo allow users to alter their email address into
infinite number of disposable addresses. For example if your email address is
[email protected] and you want to sign up for a new deal website you can alter your email
address just for that site by adding an identifier to it such as
[email protected]. This keeps your actual email address private and can
help stop criminals from being able to track your online history simply by searching for one of
your email addresses.

About PrivateGiant

PrivateGiant is a technology firm dedicated to restoring privacy to online communications for the
individual and enterprises. Its easy-to-use solutions deliver top-level security protection for text
messages, emails, and messages sent or posted on social media and other public forums.
PrivateGiant protects everyday communications from the moment they are sent or posted until
they reach the designated recipient for decoding. Visit www.privategiant.com for additional
information.

68 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – May 2015 Edition
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