The Age of AI

 In todays world, everything is online. Everyone has some kind of social media whether that is a Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. With these app come a virtual footprint and a virtual life, people put a lot on the internet. You can find all about someone by getting into an account or just by looking at the contents of the persons accounts. With all of the information people have online, it makes it quite easy for people to use your identity online. Identity theft is a surprising common occurrence in the US, 47% of Americans had experienced identity theft in 2020. This is a number that is constantly rising every year and represents both the possible weak privacy that people have, or the strength that cyber hackers are gaining. 

There are places that say they are safe places for your passwords and privacy, but how can you really trust these places. People are scared of hackers getting their information so they would rather give passwords to  these larger business that say they can protect their information. Google is promoting their new plan on promoting their security and how you can trust Google with passwords and accounts and your personal information. This may seem safe, but Google can get hacked as well, and not even just that, you are giving your information out to strangers. Google and Google accounts are constantly under fire from hackers, with plenty of accounts being corrupted by these cyber attackers. 

The main issue with the possibility of cyber attacks isn't just the possibility of identity theft, but also the amount of information that a person can know about you and possibly sell to others puts you in danger at any point. This doesn't just involve giving your information to a big company, whenever you have a password or account, you can always be at risk with your security. It is always fun having a public account, that anyone can see and you can interact with anyone, but you also lead to the possibility of others finding information on you or acting like you.

I know from personal experience that there are sometimes accounts on instagram that will find a girl, make a fake account of her, follow who she follows and acts as if it is a second account. This account will say that they have a link in their bio for more inappropriate things and then it is just a way to hack into other accounts. This is a real danger because the account that is made uses the same pictures that are on the public account, so it looks more realistic and people who aren't paying much attention can be damaged by it as well.

Cyber security kind of a myth, it is almost impossible to be completely protected online, especially if you post things about yourself or give your computer important information. There is always a chance that you can be hacked and things can be found out about you. The only real way to protect yourself online is by giving information, but not enough where damage can really be done to you or the ones you know.