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What is Doxxing? (How People Dox and How to Avoid Doxxing)
People can use various methods to take revenge on the person they hate or have a rift with; Doxxing is one way to do that on the Internet. In this post, we would discuss what Doxxing is, why and how people Dox, and how to avoid Doxxing happening with you.
What is Doxxing?
Doxxing is a form of cyberbullying in which the attacker gets the sensitive information of the victim, such as phone number, social security number, address, sexual orientation, pictures, videos, and more. After getting all such information, the attacker would leak them to the public portal or social media channels without the victim's consent. The term Doxxing originates from the 'Dropping Docs,' which means dropping the documents for personal revenge.
Why People Dox?
Generally, the intent behind making the private information of someone public is personal revenge, harassing someone, or similar malicious purposes. However, Doxxing can also be done to reveal the information of criminals and help the legal authorities, risk analysis, business analysis, and vigilante justice.
Doxxers (people or group of people who perform Doxxing) generally targets famous personalities such as politicians, actors, social media influencers. This is done to gain immediate recognition and popularity. Some people do it for gaining extortion or mere publicity.
How People Dox?
In this Internet world, it is no more challenging to get someone's personal information. In fact, most people themselves share their private information on social media handles. For getting more sensitive information, Doxxers use the following tricks −
Phishing
Phishing is a popular technique to trap users into giving private information such as bank details, social security numbers, and more. Cyber-attackers trick the victims by offering them fake offers. Users in greed and anticipation of getting that offer provide all the information willingly.
Cyberstalking
Cyberstalking is one of the quickest ways to get someone's close information. As people tend to put most of their data online publicly, it becomes easier. Using cyberstalking, the Doxxers can gain much information such as location, workplace, friends, photos, likes and dislikes, places you have visited, the names of your family members, the names of your pets, and much more.
Running a WHOIS Search
When you buy a domain, you have to provide some personal information to the registrar. That information is kept in a public registry that anyone can access by running a WHOIS search. However, the domain owners always have the option to hide their personal information from public registries.
IP Spoofing
IP Spoofing is another way to perform Doxxing. The Doxxers would try several tricks to get your IP address. Since IP address is linked with your physical address, they can use social engineering tricks to frighten you with a warning or attract you with a fake offer.
How to Avoid Doxxing Happening to You?
Following practices would keep you safe from Doxxing −
Don't share too much on Social Media − Nowadays, people have a tendency to share everything on social media channels like where they are going, what they are eating, with whom they are spending their time, and much more. It becomes easy for criminals to track and record all their activities and gain personal information.
Use VPN while connected to an unknown network − Using the VPN would ensure that no one can spoof on your IP address, and the information you enter on the internet, i.e., the login credentials and others, would be encrypted.
Protect your information from WHOIS − Most reputed domain providers give the option to protect your personal information from going public by paying some additional amount. Or, f you do not want to pay an additional amount, register the domain with fake details.
Avoid Sharing Files with Metadata − The documents you share online contain metadata. The word document contains the author name, company name, and total editing time. The images reveal too much like the camera, resolution, owner, time it was taken, and even the location if your GPS was on. Even PDF files contain metadata that can reveal the identity of the author. So, stay cautious while sharing documents online.
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