Following on from my Underground security thread dated 26th May 2022. This morning I was travelling on the overground followed by the tube and I noticed the person sat next to me was concentrating heavily on her mobile phone looking at her Barclays banking APP. As I observed I was able to see her name, sort code and account number as she flicked through the APP. Luckily she had facial recognition or I’m pretty certain I would have acquired her 5 pin code also. After the bank details she flicked between Facebook, emails and WhatsApp. Again I could clearly see the full names of the contacts within her inbox, and sometimes where they work. She then went onto WhatsApp, and she had programmed full names of her contacts into the phone. I also pick up on her Facebook account name and her place of work from her emails. If so inclined, I could have researched the names of her contacts and without much effort, found out who she is and used her identity for malicious purposes. I picked up a considerable amount of personal information in a relatively short period of time and the individual had no idea.
As an ex-detective, my motto is, “to catch a thief, think like a thief”. This is why I’m extremely vigilant and am very conscious of other people’s security. Although I clearly have no malicious intent, you just never know who may be sitting next to you.
Here at Valkyrie, we are always mentioning vigilance and personal security. I would suggest:
- Think security at all times and don’t give potential criminals an easy opportunity to steal your personal/sensitive information
- Shield your phone in public or consider using first names or nicknames in your list of contacts
