Mike Davies: Online Identity and Trust in EMEA

I'm Back

Sorry for not posting, but I'm back now

It's been a really busy summer for me, here is the reason.....

I am very happy to say that I am now a father, a beautiful baby girl and things have settled down well enough now for me to start blogging again, regularly.

She also blogs herself, and I am afraid I won't be sharing a link to her blog or her name as you would probably be able to find the blog if you knew my surname and her first name. Why don't I want you to find her blog? Well when my wife set up the blog she asked what she should or shouldn't publish, from a security perspective.

We defined a policy for the new persons blog as such:
- Only first names
- No surnames
- No details of where we live
- No plans for holidays

Maybe I am being paranoid, but I know that is a part of my duty as a father to prepare her for for life, online or offline.

If I made public her full name, the day she was born, the town we live in and other personal details like her mother and fathers name, I am already setting her up for an online fall. The amount of information that is being published by people on Facebook and other similar sites is manna from heaven for fraudsters. If you analyse what you need to take over a consumers identity the above information is a significant part.

And what about if we published when we were going on holiday? It would only take a bad guy a little time to find out where we live, and know when is the best time to pay me a visit to relieve me of my treasured possessions.

Just put it down to new parent paranoia...