What your child will learn
Run a guided self-OSINT scan on your own digital presence — Google yourself, reverse-image-search your profile pictures, and run a haveibeenpwned-style lookup so you know exactly which accounts have already leaked your email
Explain why reverse-image-searching a profile picture reveals face -> other accounts -> doxx surface and why a "private" profile pic can still leak identity through the image itself
Interpret a haveibeenpwned-style lookup result — understand that the data classes exposed (email, password, security questions, address) drive the credential-stuffing downstream risk
Explain the breadcrumb-stitching attack: school name + sports team + birthday month + first pet name crack 3 of 3 typical bank security questions, and why truthful answers to security questions are the vulnerability
Apply the UNIQUE-answer strategy for security questions — treat each as an independent strong password stored in a password manager, never answer truthfully, and never reuse answers across sites
List old-account cleanup as a remediation step — dormant accounts are breach multipliers because users forget they exist and cannot rotate their password when they leak
Audit social media privacy settings in the correct order: search yourself, reverse-image, pwned lookup, tighten settings, scrub posts, delete dormant accounts
How this mission works
You are the investigator AND the subject. In this mission, advanced learners run a guided self-OSINT (open-source intelligence) exercise on their own digital presence — Google yourself, reverse-image-search your profile pics, run a haveibeenpwned-style lookup to see exactly which accounts have already leaked your email, audit social-media privacy settings, and see the attack: school name + sports team + birthday month + first pet name is three security questions cracked on the average bank account. Then remediation phase: tighten privacy settings, scrub old posts, delete dormant accounts, and treat every security question as an independent strong password (never the real fact). Includes printable Digital Footprint Checklist you take home. Pass 5 of 6 to earn the Digital Footprint Auditor badge and 200 XP. Designed for Grades 9 through 12 — server-graded 6-question quiz, advanced reading level, no client-side scene rendering.
What students actually encounter
When is the right time to run a self-OSINT scan on your own digital presence (Google yourself, reverse-image-search your pics, run a haveibeenpwned-style lookup)?
You run a reverse-image search on your main profile picture. What does it actually reveal that a "private" profile does not protect?
You run a haveibeenpwned-style lookup on your email and the result says it appeared in 4 breaches. What does that tell you and what is the downstream risk?
Take it home after the mission — checkbox list for the OSINT phase, privacy settings, old-account cleanup, and UNIQUE-answer security-question strategy.
Cipher is with them the whole way
When a student gets stuck on Digital Footprint Forensics, Cipher appears with a mission-specific nudge — no spoilers, just a hint toward the right thinking. Make a wrong choice, and Cipher explains the real-world consequence. Finish the mission, and Cipher generates a personalized performance debrief based on exactly how the student played it.
ISTE alignment
Advanced learners (Grades 9–12) run a guided self-OSINT investigation on their own digital presence — Google themselves, reverse-image-search profile pics, haveibeenpwned-style lookups — then see the breadcrumb-stitching attack: school + sports team + birthday month + first pet name = 3 of 3 typical bank security questions. Then they build the remediation plan: UNIQUE fake answers per security question per site, old-account cleanup, tightened privacy settings. Aligned to ISTE Digital Citizen 2a (advocate for safe digital behaviors) and 2d (understand threats and vulnerabilities), CISA-K12-ECO-03 (digital identity and reputation management), and NICE-SU-THREAT-01 (red-team / threat-model thinking).