Cellphone:
Do not name your Hot Spot after you or otherwise personalize it. What’s wrong with “Mike’s Phone”? First, think about what happens when you are looking for Wi-Fi to connect to. You will see all the Wi-Fi’s that are within radio range of your mobile device. If you can see it, they can too. Therefore, it goes to follow, if this “Mike’s Phone” Hot Spot name is used, then anyone in a public place can call out the name Mike. When they see Mike react, they now have a person to go along with the device. For a woman especially, this could enable a stalker to track them. But men can be marks too. So just don’t do it. Use a name that can’t identify you. If you suspect you’re being stalked, turn off both your Bluetooth and Hot Spot capabilities when you don’t absolutely need them.
Mobile Device name:
All network connected devices have a hostname, MAC Address, and MAC Vendor information. As a result, when you connect to a network (e.g. Wi-Fi), that information is captured by the router. The hostname is configurable, and generally uses the name of the mobile device. As such, if your laptop’s name is “Mike’s Computer” or your cell phone name is “Mikes Phone”, then you’re giving your name to the Wi-Fi host. If their system is compromised, you’re also giving away the information to the nefarious actor. You should not assume that the information gift ends there. Internet sites are also able to capture passive identifiable information which includes hostname, Operating System, IP Address, Browser, browser plug-ins, browser history, display resolution, programs installed, and even the installed fonts on your computer. When you “surf” the web, you’re leaving a trail of digital footprints. There is no good reason to gift these sites your PII.
Wi-Fi Network Name:
Much like the hotspot, you should not name your home Wi-Fi after you or anyone else in the household. This is a gift to people driving by scanning available Wi-Fi connections. Name combined with address is useful PII that helps build a profile of you. This profile can be used for targeted marketing, or to help provide background to impersonate you (e.g. phoning a credit card company and pretending to be you to gain access to your accounts).
Note that network maps exist online so the person need not drive by your home. These maps can be accessed from across the world. Zoom in on the map to your local street and you’ll likely see your Wi-Fi name.
Also critical in this Wi-Fi naming convention is to avoid any clue as to what type of hardware you are using. For example, if your router is from Netgear, you don’t want to advertise that. You especially don’t also want the model number added. This is information that hackers can use to know what type of device you have, which tells them what weaknesses it has, so they know how to target an attack.
If you relocate, change the name of your Wi-Fi too. You do not want people to be able to track that you moved. This is especially important if you have a stalker.
Email Address:
Sadly, companies use employee names for their assigned email addresses. This methodology was started well before the craze of the Internet and security concerns. And, it has a good basis in business to need to do such. Most emails are sent internally or to clients. And, if one is lucky, the emails are all flowing through VPN tunnels. But small business isn’t so fortunate.
The email address is part of the metadata that is required for the email to be routed to its destination. This metadata is easily captured by hackers and marketers alike to build knowledge about who you communicate with. This helps them target you, either for profit via ads, or for theft via phishing. Big corporations have tools in place to filter out phishing attempts and other spam. Everyone else is left to fend for themselves.
You can limit your exposure on the personal email front by not using your name or any other type of Personal Identifying Information (PII) such as year of birth in your email address. I recognize this doesn’t make the address user friendly; however, obfuscating this information helps protect you from nefarious actors.