There’s no better way to start a Monday morning that having your card declined for coffee – A $3 coffee following a payday Friday, might I add. I hadn’t had any problems buying groceries on Saturday or cat food last evening which meant I definitely had money 12 hours ago, so what was going on?
Not thinking too much about it, I went on my way to work and made a mental note to check my bank account when I got there. I thought maybe my card had some kind of fraud block on it, or that one of my transfers didn’t go through the way I thought it had. What I didn’t think was that when I logged into my bank account I would be staring at not even a zero, but a balance of over -$100.
After calling my bank and shedding some pretty embarrassing tears I was finally redirected to the real culprit, which was PayPal. Not my PayPal account, but my boyfriend’s PayPal account – A PayPal account that had both of our banking informations in it, and a PayPal that had cleared out his checking as well, making us double broke. Without my name on the account I had no authorization over what was happening with my money whatsoever, PayPal couldn’t give me any information on where my money had gone or how to get it back.
When we were finally able to get more information, it turned out that our Nintendo account (which was linked to our PayPal account) had been hacked into and used to buy close to one thousand dollars worth of Fortnite currency. Do you know how humiliating it is to get robbed by Fortnite? At least it brought some humor to the unfortunate situation. It took 1 big fight, 10 long days, and 100 angry tears for us to get our money back but eventually it was settled, and yet it still left me feeling really violated.
Before this experience, which took place just a couple weeks ago, internet security was something I thought was only a concern to those who have something to hide. Having all of my money taken from me and then not having the right to figure out why or by whom really woke me up in terms of how I should be protecting what it is I trust the internet with. From this week’s module one of my favorite statements was that the internet is essentially the Wild West, because really it is.
We trust the internet because everyone around us does, and we are often more lax on security than we should be because we see our friends or peers using very basic protection measures online and having no issues. Before this week’s readings I really didn’t fully grasp just how easy it is for anyone to access anything we have done on our computers. From photos and videos to personal work files and search histories, if someone wants to gain access to these things it is simple and a good password isn’t going to protect you.
Reading the article about encryption in particular was incredibly interesting to me, because it made me realize that it is a step that any average person can take to better secure their online data and activity. It also made me realize that by giving so much of our information to online platforms we are essentially creating the opportunity for someone to gain access to everything about ourselves – Our address, phone number, social security number, all of our banking information, what we did yesterday, what we are interested in and so forth.
In the past, I haven’t given my internet security much thought other than privatizing my social media accounts so other users can only view my information if I am friends with them. What I’ve failed to realize, is that if someone wants my information bad enough no long password of “friends only” setting is going to prevent them from getting it, and that is the scary reality. If someone wants to clean out my bank accounts it’s not difficult, because I’ve essentially given them all the information they need to do so.
Moving forward, I plan to try and use the internet as if everyone is watching. While it may sound like a paranoid approach it really isn’t far off from reality. I also plan on continuing my research into the importance of encryption, and following the steps given on how to encrypt your information in the article linked above. I also plan to implement the tips given in this article, and I will start immediately by being extra conscious about the information I share via email since that is something I have not given thought to before.
In addition to these steps, I plan on getting a password manager and minimizing the amount of transactions I do online. While keeping my money and the internet completely separate would be ideal, in today’s reality it is just not a possibility. Having a secure password manager would allow me to have a variety of passwords without having to be worried about remembering them all, or someone having access to them all. Minimizing my online transactions and the sites that I trust with my banking information will also decrease my chances of ever having my money cleaned out again.
While I would definitely say this class gave me a little paranoia when it comes to my online security, I am thankful for it. I believe that everyone needs to be a little more paranoid when it comes to what they are sharing online and what their children are sharing online. One of my biggest take aways from it all, was that people need to be informed about what happens to whatever it is they decide to put into their computer and how it can be used for and against them.
One of my biggest fears leaving this class is that our internet users are getting younger and younger, and children may feel the impacts of things they shared online while underaged in their adult lives. Essentially, the internet really is the wild west – And we need to tread carefully, looking around corners and watching our own backs, because no one else is doing it for us.
