How To Find Out If You Ve Been Doxed

Doxing definition

The term 'Doxing' is short for "dropping dox" 'dox' being slang for documents. Typically, doxing is a malicious act, used against people with whom the hacker disagrees or dislikes.

What is Doxing?

Doxing (sometimes written equally Doxxing) is the deed of revealing identifying information well-nigh someone online, such equally their real name, home address, workplace, phone, fiscal, and other personal information. That data is and then circulated to the public — without the victim's permission.

While the practice of revealing personal information without one'southward consent predates the net, the term (term?) doxing first emerged in the globe of online hackers in the 1990s, where anonymity was considered sacred. Feuds betwixt rival hackers would sometimes lead to someone deciding to "driblet docs" on somebody else, who had previously only been known as a username or alias. "Docs" became "dox" and somewhen became a verb past itself (i.due east., without the prefix "drop").

The definition of doxing has expanded across the hacker world community and now refers to personal data exposure. While the term is still used to draw the unmasking of anonymous users, that aspect has become less relevant today when near of us are using our real names in social media.

Recently, doxing has become a tool in the culture wars, with rival hackers doxing those who hold opposing views the contrary side. Doxers aim to escalate their conflict with targets from online to the existent world, by revealing information which includes:

• Home addresses
• Workplace details
• Personal phone numbers
• Social security numbers
• Banking concern account or credit carte data
• Individual correspondence
• Criminal history
• Personal photos
• Embarrassing personal details

Doxing attacks can range from the relatively picayune, such as fake email sign-ups or pizza deliveries, to the far more dangerous ones, like harassing a person'south family or employer, identity theft, threats, or other forms of cyberbullying, or fifty-fifty in-person harassment.

Celebrities, politicians, and journalists are among those who have been doxed, making them suffer from online mobs, fearing for their safety, and – in extreme cases – death threats. The practice has also spread to prominent company executives; for example, when Proctor & Gamble's Gillette released its, We Believe advertising, which claimed to target toxic masculinity, Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard's LinkedIn profile was shared on 4chan — with the poster calling others to ship angry messages to him.

Doxing entered mainstream awareness in December 2011, when hacktivist group Anonymous exposed 7,000 law enforcement members' detailed information in response to investigations into hacking activities. Since then, Anonymous has doxed hundreds of alleged KKK members, and their most recent targets take included Q-Anon supporters.

The motivations behind doxing vary. People feel they accept been attacked or insulted by their target and could be seeking revenge every bit a effect. If someone becomes known for their controversial opinions, they could target someone with opposing viewpoints. Nevertheless, this tends to exist the case when the topic is especially polarized, rather than everyday political disagreements.

Intentionally revealing personal data online normally comes with the intention to punish, intimidate, or humiliate the victim in question. That said, doxers can as well see their actions every bit a way to correct perceived wrongs, bring someone to justice in the public middle, or reveal an agenda that has previously not been publicly disclosed.

Regardless of the motivation, the core purpose of doxing is to violate privacy, and information technology tin put people in an uncomfortable state of affairs — sometimes with dire consequences.

How does doxing piece of work

We alive in an age of big data; there is a vast ocean of personal information on the internet, and people oft have less control over it than they believe. This means that anyone with the time, motivation, and interest to exercise so tin can turn that data into a weapon.

Some of the methods used to dox people include:

Tracking usernames

Many people use the aforementioned username across a wide variety of services. This allows potential doxers to build up a motion picture of the target's interests and how they spend their time on the net.

Running a WHOIS search on a domain proper noun

Anyone who owns a domain name has their information stored in a registry that is often publicly bachelor via a WHOIS search. Suppose the person who bought the domain proper noun did not obscure their private information at the purchase time. In that case, personally identifying data (such as their name, address, phone number, business, and email address) is available online for anyone to find.

Phishing

If the person uses an insecure email business relationship or falls victim to a phishing scam, the hacker tin uncover sensitive emails and post them online.

Stalking social media

If your social media accounts are public, anyone can observe out information nearly you lot by cyberstalking you. They tin detect out your location, workplace, friends, photos, likes and dislikes, places you take visited, the names of your family members, the names of your pets, and so on. Using this information, a doxer may fifty-fifty piece of work out the answers to your security questions — which would help them pause into other online accounts.

Sifting through regime records

While nearly personal records are not available online, at that place is a fair amount of information that tin be gleaned on regime websites. Examples include databases of business licenses, county records, marriage licenses, DMV records, and voter registration logs – all contain personal information.

Tracking IP addresses

Doxers tin use various methods to discover your IP address, which is linked to your physical location. One time they know it, they can and so use social engineering tricks on your internet access provider (ISP) to discover more information about you. For case, they can file complaints nearly on the possessor of the IP accost or effort to hack into the network.

Reverse mobile phone lookup

Once hackers know your mobile phone number, they can find out more nearly y'all. For example, reverse phone lookup services like Whitepages let you type in a mobile phone number — or whatsoever telephone number — to notice out the identity of the person who owns the number. Sites such as Whitepages charge fees to provide information beyond the city and state associated with a mobile phone number. Though, those willing to pay can notice additional personal information almost you from your mobile phone number.

Packet sniffing

The term packet sniffing is sometimes used in relation to doxing. This refers to doxers intercepting your internet data, looking for everything from your passwords, credit bill of fare numbers, and bank business relationship information to onetime electronic mail letters. Doxers do this by connecting to an online network, cracking its security measures, so capturing the data flowing into and out of the network. Ane way to protect yourself from packet sniffing is by using a VPN.

Using data brokers

Data brokers exist to collect data about people and sell that information for profit. Data brokers get together their info from publicly available records, loyalty cards (which track your online and offline ownership behavior), online search histories (everything you search, read, or download), and from other data brokers. Many data brokers sell their information to advertisers, merely several people-search sites offer comprehensive records most individuals for relatively small-scale amounts of money. All a doxer has to exercise is to pay this pocket-sized fee to obtain enough data to dox someone.

By following breadcrumbs — small pieces of information about someone — scattered across the internet, doxers can build upwards a picture that leads to uncovering the real person behind an alias, including the person's name, physical accost, email address, phone number, and more. Doxers may also purchase and sell personal info on the dark web.

The information establish can be wielded in a threatening mode, for instance, tweeted at someone in response to a disagreement. Doxing can be less about the availability of the information and more virtually how information technology is used to intimidate or harass a target. For example, someone who has your address tin locate you or your family. Someone with your mobile phone number or e-mail can bombard you with messages that disrupt your ability to communicate with your back up network. Finally, someone with your proper name, appointment of birth, and Social Security number could as well hack into your accounts or steal your identity.

Anyone who has the determination, time, access to the internet, and motivation — will exist able to put together a contour of someone. And if the target of this doxing endeavour has fabricated their information relatively accessible online — this is made even easier.

Examples of doxing

The almost common doxing situations tend to fall into these 3 categories:

1. Releasing an individual'south private, personally identifying information online.
2. Revealing previously unknown information of a individual person online.
3. Releasing information of a private person online could be damaging to their reputation and those of their personal and/or professional assembly.

Some of the nearly famous and usually cited examples of doxing include:

Ashley Madison

Ashley Madison was an online dating site that catered towards people interested in dating outside of committed relationships. A hacker group made demands of the management backside Ashley Madison. When those demands were not met, the group released sensitive user data, doxing millions of people in the process and causing humiliation, embarrassment, and the potential for harm to both personal and professional reputations.

Cecil the Lion

A dentist from Minnesota illegally hunted and killed a lion living in a protected game preserve in Zimbabwe. Some of his identifying information was released, which resulted in even more personal information publicly posted online past people who were upset by his deportment and wanted to come across him publicly punished.

Boston Marathon bombing

During the search for the Boston Marathon bombing perpetrators, thousands of users in the Reddit customs collectively scoured news and information near the event and subsequent investigation. They intended to provide information to law enforcement that they could and then utilise to seek justice. Instead, innocent people who were not involved in the crimes were outed, resulting in a misguided witch hunt.

Is doxing illegal?

Doxing tin can ruin lives, as information technology can betrayal targeted individuals and their families to both online and real-globe harassment. Simply is it illegal?

The answer is usually no: doxing tends not to be illegal, if the information exposed lies within the public domain, and information technology was obtained using legal methods. That said, depending on your jurisdiction, doxing may fall foul of laws designed to fight stalking, harassment, and threats.

It also depends on the specific information revealed. For case, disclosing someone's real name is non as serious as revealing their habitation accost or telephone number. Notwithstanding, in the U.s., doxing a government employee falls under federal conspiracy laws and is seen as a federal offense. Because doxing is a relatively recent phenomenon, the laws around information technology are constantly evolving and are not always clear cutting.

Regardless of the law, doxing violates many websites' terms of service and, therefore, may issue in a ban. This is because doxing is ordinarily seen every bit unethical and is mostly carried out with malicious intent to intimidate, blackmail, and command others. Exposing them to potential harassment, identity theft, humiliation, loss of jobs, and rejection from family and friends.

How to protect yourself from doxing

With the vast assortment of search tools and data readily available online, almost anyone tin be a doxing victim.

If yous have ever posted in an online forum, participated in a social media site, signed an online petition, or purchased a belongings, your information is publicly available. Plus, big amounts of data are readily available to anyone who searches for it in public databases, county records, land records, search engines, and other repositories.

While this data is available to those who really want to await for information technology, there are steps you can take to protect your information. These include:

Protecting your IP address by using a VPN

A VPN or virtual private network offers excellent protection against exposing IP addresses. A VPN takes the user'southward internet traffic, encrypts information technology, and sends it through one of the service's servers before heading out to the public cyberspace – assuasive you to browse the cyberspace anonymously. Kaspersky Secure Connection protects you on public Wi-Fi, keeps your communications individual, and ensures that you are not exposed to phishing, malware, viruses, and other cyber threats.

Practice good cybersecurity

Anti-virus and malware detection software can stop doxers from stealing data through malicious applications. Regularly updated software helps to prevent any security 'holes' that could atomic number 82 to you being hacked and doxed.

Apply strong passwords

A strong password normally includes a combination of upper-case letter and lowercase letters, plus numbers and symbols. Avoid using the same password for multiple accounts, and make sure you change your passwords regularly. If you take issues remembering passwords, endeavour using a password manager.

Employ separate usernames for different platforms

If you are using online forums like Reddit, 4Chan, Discord, YouTube, or others, brand sure you lot use different usernames and passwords for each service. By using the same ones, doxers could search through your comments on different platforms and use that information to compile a detailed picture of you lot. Using different usernames for different purposes volition brand it more hard for people to track your movements beyond multiple sites.

Create separate electronic mail accounts for separate purposes

Consider maintaining divide email accounts for dissimilar purposes — professional, personal, and spam. Your personal email address can exist reserved for individual correspondence with close friends, family, and other trusted contacts; avoid publicly listing this address. Your spam e-mail can be used to sign up for accounts, services, and promotions. Finally, your professional email address (whether you are a freelancer or affiliated with a detail organisation) can be listed publicly. Every bit with public-facing social media accounts, avoid including too much-identifying data in your email handle (for instance, steer clear of firstname.lastname.dateofbirth@gmail.com).

Review and maximize your privacy settings on social media

Review the privacy settings on your social media profiles and make sure you are comfortable with the corporeality of information being shared and with whom.

Be strategic about which platforms you use for which purposes. If yous are using a platform for personal reasons (like sharing photos with friends and family on Facebook or Instagram), tighten your privacy settings. Suppose you are using a platform for professional purposes (such every bit monitoring breaking news on Twitter and tweeting links to your piece of work). In that example, you may determine to leave some of the settings public — in which case, avoid including sensitive personal data and images.

Use multi-factor hallmark

This means that y'all — and anyone else trying to access your business relationship — will need at to the lowest degree two pieces of identification to log onto your site, usually your password and your telephone number. Information technology makes it harder for hackers to access a person's devices or online accounts considering knowing the victim's password alone is not enough; they volition too need access to a PIN number.

Get rid of obsolete profiles

Review how many sites have your information. While sites like MySpace may now be out of fashion, profiles that were put up over a decade ago are withal visible and publicly accessible. This applies to any site that you lot might have formerly been agile on. Endeavor to delete obsolete and old/unused profiles if you can.

Be alert for phishing emails

Doxers might employ phishing scams to trick you into disclosing your dwelling house accost, Social Security number, or fifty-fifty passwords. Be wary whenever y'all receive a message that supposedly comes from a bank or credit bill of fare visitor and requests your personal data. Financial institutions will never enquire for this information past e-mail.

Hide domain registration information from WHOIS

WHOIS is a database of all registered domain names on the web. This public register can be used to determine the person or organization that owns a given domain, their physical accost, and other contact information.

If you programme to run a website anonymously without disclosing your real identity, brand sure your personal information is private and subconscious from the WHOIS database. Domain registrars have controls over these privacy settings, so you volition need to inquire your domain registration visitor near how to exercise so.

Inquire Google to remove information

If personal information appears in Google search results, individuals can request its removal from the search engine. Google makes this a simple process through an online form. Many data brokers put this type of information online, ordinarily for background checks or criminal offense check information.

Scrub your data

You can remove your data from information broker sites. If you want to do it yourself without incurring costs, it can be labor-intensive. If you take limited time, offset with the iii major wholesalers: Epsilon, Oracle, and Acxiom.

You will need to regularly check these databases considering your data can be republished even after beingness removed. Yous can also pay a service like DeleteMe, PrivacyDuck, or  Reputation Defender to exercise this for you.

Be wary of online quizzes and app permissions

Online quizzes may seem harmless, but they are frequently rich sources of personal information that you happily provide without thinking twice. Some parts of a quiz may even serve as security questions to your passwords. Since many quizzes ask for permission to come across your social media information or your email accost before showing you the quiz results, they tin easily associate this information with your real identity, without much context on who is launching the quiz and why it is best to avoid taking them altogether.

Mobile apps are besides sources of personal data. Many apps ask for admission permissions to your information or device that should not business the app software at all. For case, an paradigm editing app has no logical use for your contacts. If it is requesting access to your camera or photos, that makes sense. But if it as well wants to look at your contacts, GPS location, and social media profiles, then proceed with caution.

Avoid disclosing sure types of information

Wherever possible, avoid disclosing sure pieces of information in public, such as your Social Security number, home address, commuter's license number, and any information regarding bank accounts or credit bill of fare numbers. Remember, hackers could intercept electronic mail messages, so you should not include private details in yours.

Bank check how like shooting fish in a barrel it is to dox yourself

The best defence is to make information technology harder for abusers to rails downwards your private data. You can find out how easy information technology is to dox yourself by checking what data can be institute out about y'all. For example:

• Google yourself.
• Conduct out a reverse image search.
• Inspect your social media profiles, including privacy settings.
• Bank check to see if whatever of your email accounts were part of a major information breach past using a site such as Haveibeenpwned.com.
• Check CVs, bios, and personal websites to see what personal information your professional presence conveys. If yous have PDFs of CVs online, be sure to exclude details similar your home accost, personal email, and mobile phone number (or supercede them with public-facing versions of that information).

Ready Google alerts

Ready Google alerts for your total name, phone number, home accost, or other individual data you are concerned about and so you know if it of a sudden appears online, it may hateful yous have been doxed.

Avoid giving hackers a reason to dox you

Be careful what y'all post online, and never share private information on forums, bulletin boards, or social media sites. Information technology is piece of cake to remember that the internet gives people the freedom to say — or type — whatever they want. People may believe that creating anonymous identities gives them the chance to express whatever opinions they want, no matter how controversial, with no chance of them being traced. But as we take seen, that is not the case – then it is wise to be conscientious well-nigh what y'all say online.

What to do if you lot become a doxing victim

The most mutual response to being doxed is fear, if not outright panic. Feeling vulnerable is understandable. Doxing is intentionally designed to violate your sense of security and cause you to panic, lash out, or shut down. If you become a doxing victim, here are steps you can take:

Report it

Report the attack to the platforms on which your personal data has been posted. Search the relevant platform'southward terms of service or customs guidelines to decide their reporting procedure for this type of attack and follow it. While filling a course out once, salvage information technology for the future (so you do not have to repeat yourself). This is the get-go footstep to stop the spread of your personal data.

Involve police force enforcement

If a doxer makes personal threats confronting you, contact your local constabulary department. Whatsoever information pointing to your habitation accost or fiscal data should be treated equally a summit priority, especially if there are credible threats fastened.

Document it

Take screenshots or download pages on which your data has been posted. Try to ensure that the date and URL are visible. This evidence is essential for your own reference and tin can help law enforcement or other agencies involved.

Protect your financial accounts

If doxers accept published your bank account or credit bill of fare numbers, study this immediately to your fiscal institutions(s). Your credit bill of fare provider will likely abolish your carte du jour and send you a new ane. Yous will also need to modify the passwords for your online bank and credit carte du jour accounts.

Lock down your accounts

Change your passwords, use a password director, enable multi-cistron authentication where possible, and strengthen your privacy settings on every account you use.

Enlist a friend or family unit member for support

Doxing tin exist emotionally taxing. Enquire someone you trust to help you navigate the consequence, so you don't have to deal with it lone.

Doxing is a serious issue made possible by easy access to personal information online. Staying safe in an online world is not ever easy, but post-obit cybersecurity all-time-practices tin can assistance. We recommend using Kaspersky's Total Security Solution, which guards you lot against viruses on your PC, secures and stores your passwords and private documents, and encrypts the data you ship and receive online with a VPN.

Related articles:

• Identity theft: Facts and FAQs
• Instagram scams and how to stay safe on Instagram
• What to do if your identity is stolen or compromised
• Things parents should consider before posting their children photos online
• Data theft and data loss

Source: https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-doxing

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