Going somewhere grand on vacation this summer? Don’t post the pictures until you get back. Don’t post how long you’re going for.
I love looking at my friends’ pictures and knowing they’re having fun but I often worry about their security posting this stuff while they’re away.
Recently a pair of Facebook felons were arrested for breaking into their friends’ houses while they were on vacation. These “friends” tracked when the victims were vacationing from their Facebook posts and pictures. More details here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/06/post-smug-vacation-statuses-on-facebook-get-your-house-burgled/ .
Before you post on Facebook (or Twitter, or other social media) about your vacation consider if you would put a big picture of the beach on your front door with the dates you’re away typed in big font for everyone to see. You might as well leave out a plate of cookies for the thieves before you go to the airport.
And when you get back from your vacation and you’re eager to get back to work on your computer. Stop. Let your computer run all the security updates and your antivirus to run all its updates as well before you open any email or go to any web site. Better to add a 15 minute delay to starting work than to have the downtime from a virus that was patched while you were on vacation.
