Looking after our digital footprint

A digital footprint refers to the traces and information left behind by an individual’s online activities. This can include posts on social media, online purchases, website visits, and other interactions on the internet. It’s essentially a digital record that can be used to piece together a person’s online presence and behavior. If you have ever done anything online, you have a digital footprint. And we need to keep it safe. Cybercriminals can use our digital footprint to target scams more effectively, making us vulnerable to highly personalised scams.  

In this exercise, you will be playing the role of a cybercriminal. You will be looking through a fictitious person’s web presence to see what information you can gather about them. This information could then be used to target that individual more effectively in a phishing attack. It could also be used to target their workplace in a cyber attack.