Your cat could be giving away your home address….seriously.
Data security and privacy has been a big topic for years. Data breaches. Identity theft. You name it.
Well now, those photos you post of your cat could lead strangers straight to your home.
The metadata hidden beneath those cute furry Instagram pics include your geo-location. And one website, IKnowWhereYourCatLives.com, highlights just that.
They took the metadata from cat photos on Instagram and compiled a visual map of where those photos were taken.
So we went around to find out if the owners of these furry friends knew exactly what they were posting.
And once of the cats we found was Instagram famous, with well over 3,000 followers. Her name was Dasha the Ragdoll. The owner had no idea.
“I don’t want all of her fans just showing up unannounced,” Dasha's owner said. “I just don’t want all that out there. I’ll have to look at the privacy settings.”
How To Keep Your Information Safe
Here's how to turn off location services for photos on your phone:
iPhone: Settings → privacy → location services → camera → instead of “using the app” click ’Never’
Android: Go to the camera → settings → location tags → make sure it’s off
Cybersecurity Industry Hurting For Employees
More than 200,000 cybersecurity jobs are unfilled in the country. Job postings have increased by about 75 percent in the last five years.
“What has been clear for some time is that there are not enough cyber security experts to fill the pipeline that is needed,” Dean Robert Bishop at the University of South Florida said. That’s where a new undergraduate cybersecurity major at the University of South Florida in Tampa comes in.
“So the need is growing and it’s continuing to grow,” Bishop said.
He said the new major will be built on the foundation of computer science, computer engineering and information technology.
“We want to be able to know that we’re safe,” Bishop said. “We want to be able to know that our identity is safe.”
The new undergraduate cybersecurity major is part of the school’s plan to aid the state of Florida’s mission -- to be leading edge of cyber security.
USF already offers graduate programs in cybersecurity, and there’s definitely a return on investment. The average salary for a job in cyber security is pushing $100,000.
