Online Safety

"Free" game cheats, cracked software, and crypto trading bots on YouTube often hide malware. Here's how these lures work, the red flags to watch for, what to do if you already clicked, and how I cut off nearly 800 of them this week.

A frozen screen, a scary warning, and a phone number to call. Or a friendly caller from "Windows Support." Here's how to spot fake tech-support scams, what to do when one appears, and how to recover if you've already engaged.

The average person juggles more than 100 online accounts and a handful of reused passwords. Here's why a password manager is the one tool that fixes that, whether it's safe to trust one, and how to get started without the overwhelm.

Passwords are one of the weakest links in security. Passkeys let you sign in with your fingerprint, face, or device PIN instead. Here's what they are, why they resist phishing, and what happens if you lose your phone.

Malware is the engine behind most modern cybercrime, from ransomware to spyware to botnets. Here's what it is, how it evolved from a 1971 experiment, where it's headed, and how to protect your devices and your business.

Suspicious emails, fake delivery texts, and calls from "Microsoft" are all phishing. Here's what phishing is, how it grew from 1990s AOL scams into AI-powered attacks, how to spot it, and what to do if you've been phished.

You lock your front door at night, so why protect your email with just a password? Here's what two-factor authentication is, where it came from, how well it works, and why you should turn it on today.

A DocuSign phishing email from a real insurance agent's hacked account fooled me, an IT professional with 30+ years of experience. Two-factor authentication saved my account. Then I traced the attacker to 188 domains across four countries.