How to Prevent Getting Doxxed on Discord?

What is Discord?

A world of servers; hope it serves you well

Discord is a growing online chatting community; it used to be exclusively for gamers but since 2015 it has extended its audience beyond the domains of the Geek squad.

Due to the pandemic boom, it seems more people have worked, played games, and socialized online during the epidemic. This has resulted in 140 million monthly users on the platform. Doxers are on the hunt and their prey is only growing in numbers.

The basic purpose of Discord is to allow people to message each other, communicate ideas and share media and content. You might already be familiar with Slack; Discord is a more casual and relaxed version of its predecessor.

Discord is made up of servers and channels. When you first enter Discord it feels like a ghost-town of pitch darkness that you enter; until you create or join servers which act as your networking hosts. Within different servers, such as gaming networks or study groups you can enter different channels. Inside of these channels there are members who can all contribute to comments, share media such as gaming or share links, music, voice interactions and more.

Discord is great as it opens you up into a world of possibilities and connects you with all different kinds of people and networks. But don’t get caught in the network web.

There are dangers lurking here too and there are sharks waiting for their catch in this networking ocean and doxing is more prevalent than ever. A doxers favourite world is the virtual world and gamers are more susceptible than ever to attacks from these predators.

What is Doxing?

Doxing is normally an intended attack that is personal. Discord is like a gold-mine of data that doxers love to get their dig into. Somehow somebody gains access to your login details and uses it to flood your feed with personal or sensitive information. Perhaps they have opinions that differ and they make bold claims on the behalf of who they infiltrate or they may use it to expose or embarrass the victim. The damage that can be done is wide-ranging.

Even more alarming, is the phenomenon of swatting. There were certain cases where gamers would get irritated at other gamers and call armed forces to their houses for revenge. Call of Duty right at the door! The consequences can be dire!

How to prevent getting doxed on discord?

You can prevent being doxed by taking advantage of Discords security features as listed below;

1. Create Discord roles and rights

Discord servers are managed by roles and rights. A role on Discord allows for a set of permissions which can be controlled by a specific Discord member.It gives Discord members administrator rights for different roles, like preventing bans or kicking certain members or preventing them from adding channels. The @everything feature also prevents the pinging option.

2. Click discord roles in Server Settings

Take care when assigning permissions on Discord! Some permissions grant members the ability to make alterations to the servers and to the channels. The permissions tool is a great way of moderating activity. Once you make a change to your server, it cannot be undone.

3. Change the verification level

It is possible to control who can send messages on your server by setting verification levels. By setting verification levels high, you can keep your server safe from spammers, doxers, and attackers. The moderation features can be found under the server settings link.

4. The layers of verification

On Discord there aren’t any restrictions for new members and they can hop into a chat at once. For a layer of additional security, members are inclined to have a verified email address on Discord to be able to start chatting on the servers. This function could be used when you post an invitation link. This setting requests an email verification and restricts users. The membership also has to be active for at least 5 minutes before they can chat on the server.

To make this further protected for users;

All Discord users must meet the previous requirements and it is necessary for them to have been a member of the group for a minimum of ten minutes for chat to be enabled.This also stalls attackers since most raiders can't wait that long to dox an existing channel.

One further layer of restriction is that you can change your settings so that all members must have an authenticated contact number on their Discord account. This is the strictest level of security available on the Discord verification process.

5. Enable your wide server 2FA

To prevent anyone from wearing your pants you can ensure two-factor authentication.

For administrators and moderators to perform administrative functions, like deleting messages, two-factor authentication (2FA) needs to be enabled on their accounts.

Your server is protected from malicious users who might try to compromise one of your moderator or administrator accounts and make changes to it if all your admin accounts are 2FA enabled. You need to navigate to a moderator or administrator account to access the Server 2FA button.

6. Switching on the explicit content filter

Images and uploads deemed inappropriate are detected and deleted automatically by the Explicit Content Filter. The purpose of this is to allow your members to share content such as images and embeds while reducing the risk of explicit material being displayed.

7. Other precautions you can take are the use of a VPN server

An IP address and physical address can be protected with a virtual private network. Using a VPN, traffic is encrypted, propagated through their servers, and forwarded to the public internet.

You can use this to distort or obscure your identity, making it harder for doxers, scammers or hackers to steal your identity. Consequently, the snoopers cannot sniff out your private information. If information is simply not visible; it would be like chasing an invisible man.

8. Discrepancy is a doxers nightmare

Mirroring this principle, discrepancy is the key to keeping doxers at bay. You can ensure that any login details are different and difficult to guess from any information that can be discovered and harvested online. It is also common practice to ensure that private information is never posted online. The less you post about yourself, the less the sharks can swarm your waters.

9. Avoid The ‘Join4Join’ trend on Discord

A Join4Join offers the promise that you will join another streamers server in return for others joining yours. This might seem like an easy, fun and quick-fix method of introducing new people to your server and forging new relationships, but there is a fine line between Join 4 Join and the infiltration of spam and new doxers emerging from the depths of the waters.

10. Dont click it

One of the ways doxers may trick their victim is by using URL links with false promises to divert a user. If you leave Discord by clicking on a link that takes you to an external site, it may be possible for that site to access your personal information. Check unfamiliar links and URLs with a site checker like Sucuri or VirusTot first to make sure they are safe.

The same goes for downloading any files on the internet. Make sure that you use some form of malware protection or antivirus software. These downloadable files may be able to track your private information or collect information about you over time.

Still scared of the lurking doxing sharks? Protect yourself and read more about doxing here on our guide to preventing twitter doxing or our many other articles on preventing doxing.