Screaming 'Come Rob Me'

With the explosion of social media usage, self infatuation is now considered an accepted form of sharing. But posting photos alongside the intimate details of your daily activities may be making you vulnerable to unrealized cyberattacks. In a metaphorical sense, the seemingly harmless photos you've been sharing might as well be nude shots.

A recent study conducted by Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer for SANS, found concrete examples of photos taken from modern cell phones with a Global Positioning System were revealing people's locations when uploaded to popular social networking sites. In layman's terms, the photo automatically appends GPS coordinates within the photo's datum. This is not a new revelation. But Ullrich is the first person to provide concrete examples of leaked data, and to build tools to audit the information. If you're interested in the technical aspects of this research, you can find the information here. I'm more intrigued by the practical consequences of this discovery, for which there are many.

From a corporate security perspective, attackers can start to build profiles of executives who post to social networks. Once an attacker finds out where the executive lives, physical reconnaissance can fill in the rest of the gaps; does the executive bring home a work computer on the weekends? Do they leave the computer on and connected to the Internet for long periods of time? If the answers are yes, the information can be used to launch certain wireless attacks, said Ullrich.

For individuals with high profiles, one uploaded photo could divulge private residential and work addresses. If you travel frequently, you could be alerting potential robbers to an empty house. Trying to track down someone who owes you money? Check the party's Twitter account for recently uploaded photos.

Alternatively, teenagers have a new way of proving where they are to their parents. The police have another resource to check when investigating wanted individuals. Getting an autograph from your favorite celebrity may be just a photo away.

So how do you protect yourself? Kevin Johnson, a senior security analyst for InGuardians, suggests consulting with your cell phone's manufacturer to disable GPS locating. There are also tools for Windows and Linux that remove a photo's extra tags in the photos. The most important thing you can do is stop sharing information over social networks. To see just how vulnerable your information is, check out this site.