Are You Safe?

Privacy covers such a vast topic area, and is constantly in the news. People are quite rightly fearful that their personal and business information and their identities are at risk of intrusion, exposure and theft.

Just this week it was reported that 6 million Instagram users have had their information stolen and is currently on sale on the dark web. This kind of wide spread attacks on sites are virtually unstoppable for large organisations, let alone private individuals.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4844804/Data-6M-Instagram-users-sold-dark-web.html

As individuals and businesses there are steps that can be taken to protect privacy and most importantly stop others using information for gain or to obtain an advantage in business or hold power over an individual.

let's start at the basics…..

People live part of their life's through social media, we all love to post about where we have been, what we are doing and sharing precious family moments with friends and family.

Stop and think before posting and ask the questions who can see this post? What does it say about me?

Most people have not got their social media protected as they should.

Take time to go to the privacy settings, make sure not everyone can see your posts, if they are not your friends, why on earth do you want them to see what you are doing?

A high profile case recently is that of John Terry, he was having a lovely time skiing and posting those images to social media.

What did that tell the millions of followers?

He is away, no one is home. Please go and burgle my house.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4120940/john-terry-burglary-gang-jailed/

Criminals and OCG's (organised crime groups) have eyes everywhere and they use the information gleaned from people's social media posts and profiles to take advantage and use your information for their benefit.

We see friends posting lovely pictures this time of year, enjoying their holidays.

Professor Robin Dunbar has conducted various research on social media relationships and one such survey found.

That the average number of Facebook friends was 155 with women averaging more than men - 166 compared with 145 for men. They considered just 28 per cent to be genuine, or close, friends and said they would turn to just four in a crisis.

(Source - Telegraph by Sarah Knapton 20/01/2016)

Taking the above survey in to account the question must be, do I really trust and know all of my friends on Facebook, who actually has access to my posts and pages?

After all we never really know everything about our 'Friends' could they sell or pass the information on to criminal elements that would take great delight in knowing your house is unoccupied….

Moving on from social media and protecting your information let's look further into how to protect your private lives and your financial & business interests.

Get the basics right use tried and tested internet security services, all of which can be obtained for a few pounds month.

our moto 'don't give them the opportunity'

We here at Checkmate Investigations take privacy extremely seriously. We see on a weekly basis individuals and companies being targeted by external and internal sources with their sole purpose being to obtain an advantage. An advantage over the individual could be blackmail, or to sell on the information, it usually comes down to a monetary gain.

Individuals may be going through a messy separation or one partner is spying on the other to obtain information of infidelity.

How do they do this? Typically, this will be via technical surveillance, listening devices, covert cameras, recording devices. These sophisticated methods are now available to everyone, not just reserved for the security services or the Police.

For businesses & organisation's the threat of corporate espionage is ever present.

The facts are;

Corporate espionage is taking place on an almost industrial scale
Corporations and individuals are seeking to obtain information they shouldn't have access too
This behavior is increasing
Its not just big corporations that are affected, SME all also subject of attack
$34 billion US dollars for amount of damage done by espionage in the corporate sector in the UK alone that was for 2011.
Technical & Human resources are being deployed to obtain information. In layman terms, a member of staff is being paid or coerced into provided information.
Source - Nick Fishwick - Former Director General of the British Foreign Service and specialised there in Corporate Intelligence and Security - Interview with PwC

http://www.pwc.co.uk/services/forensic-services/insights/corporate-espionage-responding-to-the-threat.html

At Checkmate Investigations, we have the solutions to both individual privacy protection and business protection and will provide counter measures to give you peace of mind.

Our staff and consultants have years of counter surveillance and counter terrorism experience and expertise. They will conduct THR (Threat Harm Risk) assessments, advise on security measures and process testing.

The question is, can you afford not to know?

can you really risk not protecting you and your family and having that peace of mind?

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