Your personal information may be all over the internet. Even without your consent or intention of sharing it, many sites exist for the sole purpose of mining and sharing your information creating the danger of your information being doxxed.
Data collected from various sources, both public and private, combine to give a full picture of you. While one site may not contain a full picture of you, others may have pieces that others do not, and collectively, they can give a bad actor all the information they need.
Information about you may be available online through public records, data mined by other sites, and obtained through more sinister methods. Because these sites gather your information from various sites there’s the possibility that you can be traced through information that is shared elsewhere online.
What Is Doxxing?
Doxxing is a growing issue in the digital world because of the ease of access to information. The methods that data mining sites allow them to pull information from all corners of the web, comparing the results, and compiling a thorough history of the person the information is about. A scammer or bad actor can use that information to perform malicious activities.
One of those activities is doxxing, which is the practice of publishing a person’s personal information with the intent of causing their victim hardship. The term dox is internet slang for “document”; doxxing is the act of sharing documents or information with the general public. Most often, doxxing is a tactic used against the public or prominent figures.
How Does Doxxing Work?
Doxxing is usually done to a person who has gained the attention of a wide audience. This can be because the person being doxxed was involved in an issue that leaves people feeling a need for retribution or a celebrity.
A person who has gone viral usually garners a large amount of attention from the public. Viral figures will have news articles written about them, and the internet will get to work identifying and finding that person.
The act of doxxing can lead to malicious attacks. The information found can be to publicly humiliate the victim, cause identity theft, lead to stalking, or make the victim a target for harassment.
The information found and released about the victim can be:
- Full name
- Home address
- Social media handles or links to social media accounts
- Workplace information
- Financial information
- Social security number
- Family member information (family member names, addresses, or links to their social accounts)
The information used to dox someone can be found in a variety of places on the internet. Data mining sites can contain a concentration of information, but information about a victim can also be found in other places on the web.
Social media platforms can contain a wealth of sensitive information such as a person’s true name, the names of family members, birthdates, and locations. Property and court record sites can contain home address information.
Wedding announcement sites and obituaries can contain information about family members and other personal information. Forums, news sites, and blogs can contain general information about a victim.
The perpetrator who finds the information and releases it will choose to share it in a place that can cause damage. This can be sharing their findings on a forum or social media platform. Typically, a public-facing platform is used with the intention of harming the victim.
Who Is at Risk of Being Doxxed?
In reality, almost anyone can be at risk of being doxxed. However, those who have the most to lose become the most significant targets. The most common targets of doxxing can be celebrities, social media influencers, government officials, law enforcement officials, or viral figures.
There are several instances where an average person goes viral. These people may have become famous overnight for something they said or did that is controversial or funny. Viral figures garner a lot of attention in a short amount of time and will lead to people wanting to find them for clout.
Celebrities, both high-profile and lower-profile, can be targeted by the public. This can be people who are super fans, stalkers, or news agencies looking to contact the person.
These tactics can be applied to members of government agencies or other public officials. Someone who has an issue with that person will attempt to reach the doxxed individual or cause them harm.
Is Doxxing Dangerous?
High-profile targets can become targets of in-person attacks or harassment that can lead to mental or physical harm. The act of doxxing on its own can be a tactic to intimidate the individual being doxxed by showing that they can be found. Doxxing the person can cause the victim a world of hurt.
The physical implications mean that people can show up to the doxxed individual’s place of work or home. This can lead to harassment by the general public and put them at risk of being hurt. The person who has been doxxed can have their personal property damaged or have family members suffer directly or indirectly from the attack.
The mental anguish that can occur with victims of doxxing can lead to damages as severe as physical threats. The constant berating that comes with being publicly outed can cause depression and prevent the victim from being able to carry on with daily tasks.
Emotional damage can spread to the family of the victim and entire families can suffer from the action of doxxing. In some cases, doxxing has been used maliciously in the form of swatting. Swatting is when a person calls the police, informing them of a threat that would warrant a SWAT team showing up at the home of their victim.
The attacker is relying on the police or SWAT team to show up at the address of the doxxed victim. This type of attack is rare but has been used against celebrities or prominent figures who appear online frequently, especially on streaming platforms.
Anyone can be a victim of a swatting attack, even if most aren’t a potential victim of doxxing. Exposing a prominent figure through doxxing is only effective when a group of people is looking for a specific person.
If one person is looking for another, they will use doxxing methods to find their victim. A victim could potentially then use the doxxing to find their victim for whatever reason and potentially initiate a swatting attack.
Is Doxxing a Crime?
Doxxing is a gray area in terms of criminality. Depending on the person who is targeted and the extent of what happens, there may be criminal implications, but criminality is determined on a case by case basis. Specifically, certain government officials are considered protected and acts relating to doxxing could jeopardize their safety.
That makes aspects of doxxing a crime, even though doxxing as a whole isn’t exactly illegal. These laws are enforced on a federal level, applying to the United States as a whole. Federal officials are protected under federal laws while other individuals may be left to the statutes of state laws.
For other individuals, anti-doxxing laws are mostly scarce. Much of the information about a person is considered public knowledge, so issues of doxxing come down to circumstance. Typically the act of doxxing can trigger other consequences that a perpetrator can be charged with.
Some states have implemented laws that can be enforced against the specific act of doxxing. However, the states that’ve adopted these laws are just a few leaving millions of people unprotected.
Information like a home address is considered public knowledge, so releasing that information would not be breaking the law. Specific private information, ones that could lead to identity theft, would be considered violations of a person’s privacy.
Because the burden of proof would be placed on the victim, they would need to prove the information released in a doxxing attack caused harm. The victim would need to demonstrate an invasion of privacy and the emotional distress it caused or the physical harm that was induced.
What Can I Do if I’ve Been Doxxed?
Responding to a threat of doxxing may depend on the level of the threat. Issues that don’t reveal sensitive information or elicit physical or mental harm may be tough to approach. In those cases, ignoring the person or blocking them may be sufficient.
Instances that involve sensitive information or bring a significant threat could benefit from our tips below:
Collect Evidence
The victim should document any evidence of the attack and contact they’ve had with the perpetrator or others who have contacted them as a result of the doxxing. Take screenshots and screen recordings, or write down any issues that may have taken place in person. Save all of this information on a device or computer as the site or messages may be removed.
The accumulation of this evidence could be important as proof to law enforcement officials or to provide a lawyer. If the issue escalates and goes to a court setting, the evidence would be crucial in demonstrating the severity of the attack.
Report Doxxing on Social Media Platforms
With your documented attack stored securely in a place that can’t be accessed by others, report the threats. Many social media platforms are equipped to deal with bad actors on their platforms.
The ability to report uses may allow you to select specific issues. Look through the categorization of reporting the individual and select the one that best suits the issue of doxxing. Sharing personally identifiable information is typically a violation of all social media platforms.
The terms of service on each platform will lay out the consequences of actions and what is unacceptable behavior. Platforms don’t want to facilitate bad behavior, such as activities that would lead to harm toward other users.
Contact Authorities
If the results of being doxxed have left the victim with threats, perceived harm, or actual harm, contact law enforcement. Local law enforcement may be an appropriate first contact.
Many law enforcement offices have cybercrime divisions; if the perpetrator is known, they can pay them a visit. Local law enforcement can contact the people making the threats and help you get restraining orders.
For more serious instances, contacting the FBI’s cybercrime division may be necessary. The FBI can take credible threats and use its reach as an arm of the federal government to take action against people everywhere. Their ability to takedown perpetrators online is a big bonus. Local FBI field offices can be assigned to you and use their network to take action against perpetrators.
Secure Financial Accounts
If your personally identifiable information has been leaked to the public, your personal finances may be at risk. Scammers could be looking to use your information to obtain access to your banks or other financial accounts.
Contact your financial institutions to secure your account. If there is a threat of identity theft, you can contact the three major credit bureaus to put your credit on notice. They will then enact special steps to secure your account and prevent lines of credit from being opened on your behalf.
Secure Your Online Presence
With your personal information available to the public it’s a good idea to lock down your online presence as a whole. This means changing passwords and activating two-factor authentication where possible.
Social media platforms can become a target once others know how to find you. Setting your accounts to private, removing personal posts and personal information, and hiding posts can help protect you and your family.
Contact Family and Friends
It can be a good idea to let your friends and family know that you’ve been the victim of doxxing. Bad actors may attempt to contact your family and friends for the sake of harassing them, or they may begin to catfish them. Bad actors and scammers may contact people you know to get more information about you or take on other malicious acts.
Family and friends may need to take secure action of their own, depending on the severity of the doxxing attack. They should also take the steps above if they’re affected by the doxxing. Giving them advance notice may help them prevent dealing with the most severe issues. Minimizing the effects of the attack can begin with minimizing your online presence.
Take a Step Back
During the dox attack, removing yourself from the online world can be extremely beneficial to your mental health. Once you’ve taken the steps to protect your accounts and have contacted law enforcement, take a step back.
Focus on yourself and your family and wait for the obsession of the public to dissolve. With the aid of law enforcement, they can work to keep you safe.
Find a Safer Space
If the threat of being doxxed extends to the physical world, it may be wise to leave your area for a while. People showing up to your home or place of work or finding you in public can pose potential physical harm.
Going off the radar while your case is being investigated can help keep you and your family safe. Notify the proper authorities if you plan to leave your primary residence and let them know of any escalating issues or threats.
Contact Digital Forensics
Digital Forensics can assist you and your loved ones fight back against a doxxing attack. Our skilled team of experts consists of digital forensics engineers, social engineering experts, and lawyers trained in cybercrime. Our team can help unveil your attacker, document the digital footprints for legal action, and secure your online presence.
We have a track record of helping victims of online threats take back their lives. Your sensitive information may exist across several sites, and we can help take down and manage your online information. We can also prevent the leak of further information to ensure your online safety.
How Can I Prevent Doxxing?
Prevention is one of the best approaches to protecting yourself from a dox attack. Most doxxing attacks occur because of the easy access to your information, information you may have provided to sites or that other sites may have maliciously taken. The steps we’ll lay out can protect you from a suspected possibility of being doxxed or even act as a general precaution.
Here’s what you can do to protect your online presence:
Find Yourself Online
See how your information online is presented. Most perpetrators will search you by name, phone number, address, or other methods. Googling yourself can give you a good idea of how you’re found and what information comes up. If sensitive information is found on a site, what information does it contain?
Depending on the site, you may be able to request the information be modified or taken down. If the information presented is sensitive enough beyond public information, you may be able to file takedown requests, flag the URL to Google, and contact the authorities to notify them.
Sanitize Your Social Media
Your social media profiles may contain plenty of personal information. The information may not be contained in just one place, but different bits of information spread across several social media platforms.
This can be a mention of some of your personal life on Instagram vs other details shared on LinkedIn. A perpetrator will take the bits and pieces to get a full profile of you. Make your social media profiles private and review the privacy settings of each platform.
See what your profile looks like from an outside perspective to ensure you’re not sharing details you don’t want to be seen. Remove posts that share sensitive information or personal details. Look through your friend list to ensure the people who have access to your private account are people you know personally.
Protect Your Communications
Move your communications to methods of contact that you control. This can be encrypted messages, in-person conversations, and avoiding social platforms for sensitive communications. Text messages and even phone calls may not be entirely private, if you need to communicate online opt for encrypted services.
Keep an eye out for phishing attacks. These are methods used by bad actors to impersonate someone you know in an attempt to get sensitive information from you. They may pose as a family member, friend, or coworker asking you questions about personal details in your life.
Make Smart Digital Choices
There are several general online decisions you can make to keep yourself secure on a daily basis. Don’t connect to public WiFi and stick to networks you own or control.
Avoid hotel networks, coffee shop networks, and even ones controlled by friends. Don’t log into sensitive accounts on devices that aren’t your own. Stick to your own device that you own or control.
Ensure that your devices have passwords to prevent them from being opened by others. For devices that allow it, enable location tracking in the event that it gets lost. Both of those actions can help you recover or keep your data safe so that if someone has your device, it can’t be used against you.
Conclusion
Doxxing is a situation that can be unpredictable and come with unknown consequences. Depending on how your data is published, where it’s published, and what data is leaked can determine the severity of the issue. At its best, it may not lead to any issue, and at its worst, it can be a potentially dangerous situation.
Take the steps we’ve laid out to respond to threats of being doxxed, ongoing dox attacks, and preventing a future attack. Keeping yourself safe online can come down to making smart decisions before jumping online or seeking out help when things begin to get out of hand.
In instances when you need immediate help getting control of your situation, Digital Forensics is available through a 24/7 toll-free hotline, live chat on our site, or send us a message.
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