You've probably seen the recent news stories regarding threats from ISIS against military members. Online postings from the group suggest their followers use social media pages to find and target those associated with the U.S. government. Although we regularly remind you to use precautionary measures online, this seems like a good time for a refresher:
• Limit who can see what you post-- in most cases, only the people you allow to view your information can see it, so be sure all your accounts are set to "Private." This keeps your information limited to those you've accepted friend/follower requests from and prevents your posts from appearing in search results.
• Know your audience -- many users allow their posts to be public and freely accept friend/follower requests from anyone. This is not advisable. You should limit your online social circle to people you actually know. Only accept friend/follower requests from people you trust to see what you're posting. And be conscience of "tagging" people in posts and photos, this expands the audience from just yours to all the friends/followers of whoever is tagged.
• Practice OPSEC -- No matter what precautions you take there is always a chance that your posts can be made public. No site's security settings are absolute so post as if the whole world is reading, and remember once it's online it's out there forever. Many applications and sites apply location data to your posts automatically, be sure the "Geolocation" options are turned off. A good rule of thumb is to avoid specifics such as addresses, dates and locations.
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