Bob the Cyber-Guy’s Cyber Safety Tip #127

“Your ‘Trusted Contacts’ Can Become Attack Paths”

“Trusted contacts” sound comforting.
Sometimes they’re exactly the opposite.

🚨 What’s the hidden risk?

Many services let you assign trusted people to help recover accounts or approve changes:

• Email providers

• Social media accounts

• Cloud storage

• Financial and subscription services

If their account gets compromised, yours may follow.

Attackers don’t always go after you directly — they go after the weakest link connected to you.

⚠️ Common assumptions that cause trouble

• “They’re family, so they’re safe”

• “They’re good with computers”

• “I set this up years ago, it’s probably fine”

People change. Devices change. Habits change.
Trust relationships don’t always get updated.

✅ Smart protection steps

• Review trusted contacts at least once a year

• Remove anyone who no longer actively uses their account

• Avoid assigning someone who reuses passwords

• Never use the same trusted contact across multiple critical accounts

• If possible, prefer app-based or hardware verification instead

 🧠 Cyber-Bob’s rule of thumb

Your security is only as strong as the people connected to it.

Digital trust should be intentional, not automatic. 

(I created the prompt, ChatGPT created the information.)