rom a young age, many of us have been told to be careful about what we put on the internet. Colleges and future employers will be able to easily find anything we post on social media, and nothing can ever truly be deleted from the internet.
But something we are often not warned of is the collected aspects of our internet usage that we don’t willingly put out to the world. Every action we commit online is recorded with or without our knowledge.
Your digital footprint is not only important to those considering you for a position, but also to those trying to sell you something or possibly steal something from you. Your online data can be used to blackmail and extort you, but understanding how to manage your footprint can help you avoid falling victim to cybercrime.
Understanding Digital Footprints.
A digital footprint consists of any and all evidence of our online presence. This trail of data includes any websites we visit, social media posts we make, emails we send, and much more. Any activity that can be linked back to your identity, including that of your connections, contributes to your digital footprint.
Many people are aware of the obvious contributions to our digital footprints. We know the data we are putting out when we post on social media about a big life milestone. What many of us don’t know is that our IP address was captured when we logged in, and the file of the photo we posted contains data regarding the location it was taken at.
We may be aware that every page we visit is logged in our history, but we might not know that the number of times we visit, how long we visit, and even the areas of the page we drag our cursor to are all being tracked. Knowing what all makes up our footprint is pivotal to safely and securely using the internet.
Examples of a Digital Footprint
There are two types of digital footprint that are distinguished based on how the data was collected. Active footprints consist of data that is posted or shared willingly, while passive footprints are left behind unintentionally.
Data that contributes to your active footprint includes:
- Social Media Posts: Each time we post, like, comment, or engage in any way on social media, we are actively volunteering our data in some form. Any information that we share on our profiles can be used to identify us.
- Online Communication: Any conversation that you have online leaves data behind. Even temporary and private conversations are tracked and contribute to our footprint.
- Online Transactions: Any purchase you make, subscription you sign up for, or funds you send virtually are documented. Not only are the details of these transactions recorded, but you are also volunteering your banking information.
Data that contributes to your passive footprint includes:
- IP Address: Every device that connects to the internet is given a specific string of numbers known as an IP address. This ensures that data sent from one device to another reaches its intended location. Our IP address is collected every time we have an online interaction.
- Metadata: Simply put, and as the ‘meta’ portion implies, metadata is data regarding data. Each photo, webpage, email, and any other content shared online has internal files containing data about its origin. This includes the time, location, and creator of the content in question.
- Browsing History: All of our activity online is chronicled. Every site we visit, when we visited it, and the amount of time we spent on the page is tracked in our browsing history. This information can determine what websites we are recommended.
- Cookies: Similarly to browsing history, cookies are bits of data that are stored to identify you while using the internet. This includes saving passwords and tracking internet usage. Companies can use this data to determine which advertisements to show you based on your internet activity.
The role of Digital Footprints in Investigations
Advertisers accessing your digital footprint may feel like an invasion of privacy, but it’s nothing compared to potential damage of a cybercriminal getting their hands on it. Being privy to your likes, tendencies, and saved data can give a perpetrator all that they need to tailor a convincing scheme.
Access to your cookies and subsequent saved passwords could allow a criminal to access your private data and leverage it for online blackmail. They could send a convincing phishing email posing as a company you use in a cyber extortion scheme or even commit sextortion through the use of photos you post and deepfake AI technology.
While this is a scary prospect, the upside is that cyber security professionals can use this same data to uncover and track cybercriminals. By analyzing the content they send, their communication patterns, and their internet activity, specialists can break through their facades and bring them to justice.
Source Identification:
Digital forensics analysts can extract data such as IP addresses, operating systems, metadata from content that is exchanged, and logs of when and where servers are accessed to pinpoint the origin of cyber extortion and other online crime attempts.
Tracking Communication:
Metadata is also left behind in email headers, social media posts, and messaging app conversations. This information can be extracted to find the true sender and reconstruct an accurate timeline of the blackmail and extortion committed.
Corroborating Evidence:
Similarities in content, verbiage, and general format can be found across various forms of communication that can help investigators distinguish the perpetrator. Copy-and-paste threats made by extortionists, such as those seen in the “Hello Pervert” mass sextortion email scam, can help analyst track similar threats across platforms back to the same cybercriminal.
Uncovering Patterns and Networks:
Many of these cybercriminals are working within a larger crime ring, such as the primary sextortion operations coming out of the Philippines, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast. This leads to similarities in the techniques used across cases.
Digital forensics analysts have databanks of information from previous cases that they can use to compare with the data collected in the current case. Uncovering these patterns can help narrow down the possible location of the perpetrator.
Challenges in Leveraging Digital Footprints
There are three main challenges that cybercriminals optimize to make identification more difficult. The following obstacles can help perpetrators hide their identities and evidence of their crimes:
- Anonymity and Obfuscation: Cybercriminals use VPNs, proxies, and other anonymizing tools to protect their online anonymity. This can make it difficult for cyber security professionals to uncover IP addresses and track down cybercriminals.
- Encryption & Data Privacy: While encryption is a crucial tool for keeping your data safe, it can also be a hinderance to cybersecurity trying to collect data from cybercriminals. According to research conducted by Eva Vincze, roughly 60% of cases involving encrypted data go unsolved(1). This requires the development and use of specialized decryption tools and vulnerability exploitation to extract any useful information.
- Data Volume & Complexity: With device storage becoming cheap and accessible in recent years, cybercriminals can bury files within large amounts of data. Combing through these large databanks can be time consuming and resource exhausting for cyber security organizations.
Best Practices for Investigators
While investigators face challenges such as the ones outlined above, there are strategies which allow them to work around these restrictions. Following these tried-and-true practices and constantly developing new techniques is critical to staying ahead of cybercrime.
Chain of Custody
Digital forensics analysts need to meticulously collect and preserve all evidence in their investigation to establish a precise timeline from its collection through its presentation. This is necessary to maintain the integrity of the data and ensure it will be admissible in court.
International Collaboration
With many cybercrimes like extortion and sextortion originating from operations housed outside of the country of the victim, it is crucial for investigations to not be restricted by national borders.
Collaboration between nations allows for cybercriminals to be tracked down regardless of their geographic location. Additionally, it ensures that legal action can be taken by agencies with the proper jurisdiction.
Ongoing Training & Technology Upgrades
As the methods of collecting data to commit cybercrimes advance, so must the methods used by cyber security to combat them. Development of decryption tools, strategies to recover deleted files, and software that can detect hidden data are pivotal for the future of digital forensics.
Where Can Victims Get Help?
Here at DFC, we are here to help you if your digital footprint is being used to blackmail or extort you. We are always looking to the future and developing new strategies to help keep your data secure and remove it from the hands of cyber criminals.
If your data is being leveraged against you, contact our Blackmail Helpline today for a free consultation with one of our specialists.
Sources:
- Vincze, E. A. (2016). Challenges in digital forensics. Police Practice and Research, 17(2), 183–194.
DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSIDERED LEGAL ADVICE ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER. DIGITAL FORENSICS CORP. IS NOT A LAWFIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL ADVICE OR SERVICES. By viewing posts, the reader understands there is no attorney-client relationship, the post should not be used as a substitute for legal advice from a licensed professional attorney, and readers are urged to consult their own legal counsel on any specific legal questions concerning a specific situation.
