Security & Safety Resource Center

We all deal with email attachments every day. Whether it’s an invoice from a contractor, photos from a family member, or a project file from a colleague, clicking “download” is second nature. But among the harmless documents and images, there’s a file type that security experts urge you to handle with extreme caution: the .zip file.

A .zip file is like a digital suitcase—it packs multiple files into one smaller, convenient package. But just like a real suitcase, you can’t see what’s inside until you open it. This “blind spot” makes it a favorite tool for cybercriminals.

Why Hackers Love .Zip Files

Hackers know that most email services scan attachments for viruses. However, malicious code hidden inside a .zip file (especially if the zip file is password-protected) is much harder for automated scanners to detect. This allows malware, ransomware, and spyware to sneak past your email’s defenses and land right in your inbox.

Once you double-click that zip file to see what’s inside, you might inadvertently run a script that infects your computer.

Minimizing Your Exposure

While some attachments are unavoidable, you can significantly reduce your risk by following a few active rules:

1. The Contact Rule: Never, ever open a .zip attachment from someone who is not in your contacts list. If an unknown sender sends you a “Invoice.zip” or “Photos.zip,” delete it immediately.
2. The “Unexpected” Rule: Even if the email comes from a friend or coworker, pause if you weren’t expecting it. Hackers often hijack email accounts to send malicious files to everyone in the victim’s address book. If your boss sends you a strange zip file with no context, text them to verify they actually sent it.
3. The Cloud Alternative: This is your best proactive defense. Ask senders if they can share documents via a cloud link (like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive) instead of an attachment.
   1. Why it’s safer: Cloud services automatically scan files for viruses before you download them. Plus, you can preview the file content in your browser without ever saving it to your hard drive, keeping malicious code at arm’s length.

Better Safe Than Sorry

If you absolutely must open a zip file, ensure your antivirus software is active and up to date. Right-click the file and select “Scan for viruses” before you try to open it.

It only takes one bad click to compromise your personal data. Treat every .zip file with a healthy dose of suspicion, and when in doubt, ask for a cloud link!

We love our smart speakers. They play our favorite playlists, tell us the weather, and settle dinner table debates with a quick fact-check. But have you ever looked over at your Echo device and noticed that tell-tale blue ring spinning silently, even though nobody said the “A-word”?

It’s a little spooky, right?

Your Alexa device is designed to be helpful, but it isn’t perfect. It is constantly listening for its “wake word” (usually “Alexa,” “Echo,” or “Computer”). The problem is that human speech is messy. If you accidentally say a word that sounds similar to the wake word—like “election,” “a letter,” or “unacceptable”—your device might wake up and start recording.

When this happens, the consequences can range from mildly annoying to genuinely invasive.

The Risk of the “Ghost” Activation

When your device wakes up accidentally, it doesn’t just sit there; it acts.

1. Unwanted Recordings: The device starts recording your private conversation, thinking it’s a command, and sends that audio to the cloud.
2. Accidental Messages: It might misinterpret your conversation as a request to send a text message or call a contact.
3. Mystery Shopping: In rare but documented cases, devices have interpreted background noise or TV dialogue as a request to purchase items, leaving you with a surprise charge on your credit card.

The Problem with Low Volume

Usually, Alexa is polite enough to respond when spoken to. It might ask for clarification (“I didn’t quite get that”) or make a chime sound. However, if you keep your device volume turned down low, you lose your primary security alert.

If you are in another room, watching a loud movie, or deep in conversation with friends, you might not hear the quiet mumble of a low-volume Alexa responding to a false wake word. The device is active, listening, and potentially acting, and you are completely oblivious.

Your Active Solution: Crank Up the Volume!

The fix is surprisingly analog: Turn up the volume on your Alexa device.

Think of the volume not just as a way to hear music, but as an auditory security notification system. You want that volume set high enough that if the device activates across the room—or even in the next room—you will hear it respond.

If you hear Alexa start talking out of nowhere, you can immediately shout, “Alexa, stop!” preventing it from recording further, sending a message, or buying that accidental item.

Pro-Tip: Enable “Request Sounds”

For even more security, go into your Alexa app settings and enable “Start of Request” sounds.

1. Open the Alexa App.
2. Go to Settings -> Device Settings.
3. Select your device and look for Sounds.
4. Toggle on Start of Request.

This forces the device to make a distinct “bing” sound the moment it hears the wake word, giving you an instant heads-up that it is listening, even before it speaks a response.

Don’t let your smart home keep secrets from you. Turn up the volume and keep your ears open!

Let’s be honest, most popular web browsers aren’t built to protect your privacy; they’re built to collect your data. When you use a standard browser, you are constantly being tracked, profiled, and bombarded with targeted ads. Incognito mode is a nice start, but it doesn’t hide your activity from your internet provider, employer, or the websites you visit.

If you want real, always-on protection while searching and browsing the web, it’s time to switch to a tool designed with privacy as its primary goal: the Epic Privacy Browser.

A Browser Built for Security, Not Surveillance

Epic isn’t just another browser with a few privacy settings tacked on. It’s built from the ground up on the Chromium platform (the same engine that powers Google Chrome), but with all Google’s tracking code and data-collection features ripped out.

When you open Epic, you are entering a secure digital environment where privacy is the default, not an option you have to dig through menus to find.

Key Security Features That Are Always On:

• Built-in Encrypted Proxy (VPN): This is a game-changer. With a single click, you can turn on Epic’s built-in encrypted proxy, which acts like a free VPN. It hides your real IP address and routes your traffic through a secure server, making it incredibly difficult for anyone to track your location or spy on your browsing activity. You can even choose from servers in eight different countries.
• Aggressive Tracking Protection: Epic is an active defender. It automatically blocks thousands of tracking scripts, cookies, and other agents that try to follow you across the web. According to their data, Epic stops an average of over 600 tracking attempts in every single browsing session.
• Stopping Advanced Snooping: Beyond standard cookies, Epic blocks more insidious tracking methods. It stops fingerprinting (a technique that identifies your specific device based on its unique configurations), cryptomining scripts that try to steal your computer’s processing power, and even ultrasound signaling used for cross-device tracking.

Your Active Solution: Download and Browse Freely

The best part? This level of security is completely free and easy to use. You don’t need to be a tech expert to set it up.

Epic Privacy Browser is available for all your major devices: Apple (macOS and iOS), Windows, and Android.

How to Get Started:

1. Visit the Official Website: Go to epicbrowser.com.
2. Click “Download Epic Now”: The site will automatically detect your operating system and provide the correct installer.
3. Install and Browse: Run the installer. Once it opens, you are browsing in privacy mode immediately. Remember to click the plug icon next to the address bar to activate the encrypted proxy for maximum protection.

Take control of your online life. Stop letting companies profit from your private data and start browsing with a tool that actually works for you.

Let’s be real: looking at your bank statement isn’t exactly everyone’s idea of a fun Friday night. It’s usually a reminder of how much we spent on takeout or that subscription we promised to cancel three months ago. But in a world where online shopping, mobile payments, and digital banking are the new normal, ignoring that list of transactions is a dangerous game.

Recent events have shifted how we spend money. We are swiping, tapping, and clicking “Buy Now” more than ever before. While this convenience is amazing, it creates a chaotic stream of data that makes it incredibly easy for fraudsters to hide in plain sight.

It is more important than ever to keep a hawk-eye on your financial accounts. You need to become the active guardian of your own wallet.

The Danger of “Micro-Fraud”

You might assume that if a hacker got your credit card info, they would immediately go buy a sports car or a first-class ticket to Paris. But modern cybercriminals are smarter than that. They know that a $5,000 charge triggers immediate alarm bells at the bank.

Instead, they often start small. They run “test charges”—sometimes for as little as $0.99 or $2.00—to see if the card is active and if you are paying attention. If you ignore that tiny charge because you assume it’s just a vending machine snack or a forgotten app fee, you give them the green light. Once they know you aren’t watching, they hit you with the big charges later, or sell your “verified” card details on the dark web.

Don’t Wait for the Paper Statement

If you are waiting for a physical envelope to arrive in the mail once a month to check your spending, you are reacting too slowly. By the time you spot a fraudulent charge on a paper statement, the damage could already be done, and the window to easily dispute the transaction might be closing.

You need to get digital to fight digital crime.

Your Active Defense Plan:

1. Check Weekly (at minimum): Open your banking app or log in online at least once a week. Scan the recent activity. Does every merchant name look familiar? Do the dates match up with your actual shopping trips?
2. Investigate the “Unknowns”: See a charge from “XYZ Holdings”? Don’t ignore it. Google the merchant name immediately. Often, parent companies have different names than their storefronts, but sometimes, it’s a scammer hoping you won’t bother to check.
3. Turn on Push Notifications: This is a game-changer. Most banking apps allow you to enable “Transaction Alerts.” You can set it so your phone buzzes every time a charge over $1.00 is made. This gives you real-time security; if your phone buzzes with a charge while your credit card is sitting safely in your pocket, you know instantly that you’ve been compromised.

Spot It, Report It, Stop It

If you spot something wrong, don’t hesitate. Call your bank or credit card issuer immediately using the number on the back of your card. The faster you act, the easier it is to freeze the card, reverse the charge, and secure your money.

Make checking your statements a regular habit—think of it as a quick weekly “date” with your finances. It protects your bank balance and gives you peace of mind!

Your Alexa device is a modern convenience—you can check the weather, play your favorite songs, and yes, even order household items just by speaking a command. That last part, however, gives anyone in your home, including guests, children, or roommates, the power to easily buy something with your stored credit card.

Imagine your kid blurts out, “Alexa, order one hundred pounds of bananas!” Or a houseguest jokes, “Alexa, buy a yacht!” Without a protective measure in place, you could find a very surprising, and expensive, package waiting for you at the door.

If you have voice purchasing enabled, you must take an active security step right now: set up a PIN that you also have to say along with your purchase request.

Why a PIN is Critical for Financial Safety

When voice purchasing is enabled without a security layer, any voice—no matter who speaks it—can authorize a transaction using your Amazon account and linked payment method. This creates a massive hole in your financial security.

A Voice Purchasing PIN (or Voice Code) adds a critical second step to the process. Instead of simply saying, “Alexa, buy paper towels,” you would have to say something like, “Alexa, buy paper towels, using PIN one-two-three-four.”

The benefits are immediate:

• Stops Accidental Orders: The biggest protection is against accidental or misunderstood commands, or against kids who know they aren’t supposed to touch your wallet but don’t think twice about asking Alexa for a toy.
• Blocks Unauthorized Users: Guests, babysitters, or friends who don’t know your PIN won’t be able to finalize a purchase on your account.
• Adds Intent: Requiring a PIN ensures that the purchase is intentional, not an impulse or a misinterpreted conversation.

Your Active Solution: How to Set Up the PIN

Setting up the Voice Purchasing PIN is an option within your Amazon account settings, accessible through the Alexa mobile app.

1. Open the Alexa App: On your mobile device, open the Amazon Alexa app.
2. Go to Settings: Navigate to the “More” section, then tap “Settings.”
3. Find Voice Purchasing: Select “Account Settings,” then look for and select “Voice Purchasing.”
4. Enable the PIN: Find the option to Require confirmation code (or Voice code) and enter a 4-digit PIN. Make sure to choose a code that is unique and not easily guessed.

A Note of Caution

While the PIN is an excellent security measure, it’s not foolproof. Because you are required to say the code aloud, anyone who happens to be nearby could overhear it. Therefore, it’s also best to ensure that no one is within earshot when you say your PIN to your device. If privacy is paramount, consider disabling voice purchasing altogether for items you don’t frequently reorder.

Take control of your smart speaker’s spending power. Set up your Voice Purchasing PIN today and secure your credit card against rogue commands!

We’ve talked before about how Google tracks your search history to build a detailed personal profile. While that personalization can be convenient, many people are rightly uncomfortable with the thought of a giant tech company monitoring every question they ask the internet.

If you’re ready to ditch the data-harvesting model and embrace truly private searching, you have great alternatives. But there’s one search engine that not only protects your privacy but also actively uses your searches to benefit the planet: Ecosia.

It’s time to take an active step toward securing your searches and making your clicks count for a cause.

Your Search Data Stays Yours

Like most other private search engines, Ecosia is built on a simple promise: your search data belongs to you. This is a massive shift from the ad-driven model of the major players.

Here is Ecosia’s core privacy guarantee:

• No Selling Data: Ecosia does not sell your search data or your web history to third parties. Your curiosity remains your business.
• No Permanent Profile: They anonymize your searches after one week and do not use personal trackers to monitor the sites you visit after you leave the search page. Your searches are not tied to a long-term, specific profile.
• Encrypted Search: Your searches are encrypted, protecting them from interception while traveling across the network.

By switching to Ecosia, you immediately stop feeding your most private questions and concerns into a massive corporate data machine. This one simple change dramatically shrinks your digital footprint and enhances your overall privacy.

The Added Benefit: Green Computing

Ecosia doesn’t just offer security; it offers sustainability. The unique, added benefit of using Ecosia is that they operate with a powerful “green computing” angle. Ecosia is a certified B Corporation, meaning they balance purpose and profit, and they are committed to climate action.

• Planting Power: Ecosia uses the income generated from search ads (the same way all search engines make money, but without the tracking) to fund tree-planting projects around the world. So far, they have planted over 199 million trees!
• Renewable Energy: Ecosia’s servers run on 100% renewable energy, ensuring your searches are carbon-neutral and actually help fight climate change.

You are not sacrificing anything to gain this benefit. Ecosia provides high-quality search results, often pulled from reputable sources, while providing peace of mind and contributing to global reforestation efforts.

Switching your default search engine is easy. Take a minute today to install Ecosia and start browsing securely and sustainably.

Imagine this nightmare: Your laptop crashes, your hard drive fails, or worse—it’s stolen. Now think about the precious data you just lost: years of irreplaceable family photos, critical tax documents, videos of milestone events, and essential work files. If all of that important data was stored solely on that one local system without a backup, it’s gone forever.

Relying on a single storage location is one of the biggest security mistakes you can make. It’s an open invitation to disaster. The best practice in data security is the Redundancy Rule: Maintain multiple copies of your important files across different, isolated locations.

The Flaw of the Single System

A single local system—whether it’s your computer’s hard drive or even a single external drive—is always vulnerable to failure or disaster.

• Physical Failure: Hard drives and solid-state drives wear out and die. It’s a matter of when, not if.
• Local Disaster: Fire, flood, or a surge of electricity can wipe out all devices connected in one room.
• Ransomware and Theft: If your laptop is stolen or attacked by ransomware (which encrypts all your files), that single copy of your data is inaccessible or lost forever.

When all of your critical photos, videos, documents, and apps are in one place, a single point of failure means total, catastrophic data loss. You are putting all your digital eggs in one, very fragile basket.

Your Active Solution: The 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

You need to take an active role in creating a robust, multi-layered backup system. Experts recommend the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy:

1. 3 Copies of your data: Keep your original plus two backups.
2. 2 Different media types: Store your copies on at least two different storage types (e.g., your computer’s hard drive and an external hard drive).
3. 1 Copy offsite: Keep at least one copy in an offsite location to protect against local disasters (e.g., using an online cloud backup service).

Implementing the Redundancy Rule:

• External Hard Drive: Use an external hard drive to maintain a local backup copy. This gives you fast access to files if your computer crashes.
• Online Backup Solution: This is the critical “offsite” component. Services like cloud storage or dedicated online backup solutions automatically upload and encrypt your data, protecting it from theft, fire, and ransomware. This ensures that even if your entire home is destroyed, your data is safe and recoverable.

Don’t wait for your hard drive to start clicking. Be proactive, create multiple copies of your essential data, and ensure your memories and documents are safe, no matter what happens to your device.

We all love getting the maximum lifespan out of our smartphones, tablets, and laptops. It saves money, and it’s better for the planet. But there is a point in every device’s life where clinging to it becomes a significant security risk: when the manufacturer stops sending updates.

Countless electronic devices are eventually abandoned by their makers, at least when it comes to regular security and operating system patches. When your trusted phone or laptop stops receiving those critical patches and upgrades, it is essentially frozen in time, leaving it vulnerable to new threats that hackers discover every single day.

If this happens to a device you rely on for banking, email, or work, it’s time to seriously consider upgrading to a newer version or an alternative that is still actively supported.

The Risk of the Abandoned Device

Think of a software update as a digital shield. Every time a major operating system (like iOS, Android, Windows, or macOS) releases a new patch, they are closing security holes that hackers have found or are actively exploiting.

When your device stops getting those updates:

• Open Vulnerabilities: You are permanently stuck with known security flaws. Any vulnerability discovered after your last update is an open door for hackers to exploit, and there is nothing you can do about it except replace the device.
• Malware Magnet: Malware, viruses, and sophisticated phishing attacks often target known, unpatched vulnerabilities. Using an unsupported device makes you a low-hanging and highly attractive target for cybercriminals.
• App Incompatibility: As developers update their apps to rely on new security features in the latest operating systems, your old device may stop being able to run critical applications like banking software, further limiting your ability to transact securely.

Your Active Solution: Check the Support Lifespan

Before you let your device become a security liability, take a moment to research its support status.

1. Check the Manufacturer: Look up your device model and see when the manufacturer officially ended its software support.
2. Look for Security Patches: If your operating system is still receiving monthly security patches (even if you aren’t getting flashy new features), you’re probably okay for now. But if all security updates have ceased, it’s a red flag.
3. Plan Your Exit: If your device is past its security expiration date, start planning your upgrade. You can look for a newer version of the same device or consider alternative brands that offer longer-term support.

Don’t wait until a breach forces your hand. Be proactive, check your update status, and take control of your digital security by ensuring your hardware is running fully protected software.

LinkedIn is your professional showcase—it’s where you highlight your achievements, network with colleagues, and attract potential employers. The goal is visibility, but visibility comes with security risks. If your profile is too open, you could be giving away sensitive personal data that scammers, identity thieves, or stalkers can exploit.

While you want recruiters to find your experience, you definitely don’t want strangers finding your home address or private phone number. It’s time to actively edit your public LinkedIn profile to hide unnecessary personal data, like your ZIP code or contact information, ensuring your professional presence doesn’t compromise your personal safety.

The Risk of Public Exposure

LinkedIn lets you control what the public—meaning people you aren’t connected with and anyone who searches your name on Google—can see. The information you leave public can be easily harvested by cybercriminals:

• The Address Link: Even revealing your ZIP code allows a determined attacker to narrow down where you live, especially when combined with your past work history (which is publicly available).
• The Phishing Ploy: If your personal email or phone number is publicly listed, you become a prime target for spear-phishing attacks—highly customized emails designed to trick you because they appear so specific and legitimate.
• Stalking and Harassment: For professionals who deal with public-facing roles, revealing too much personal location data creates a real-world safety concern.

Remember, your resume contains enough information for a job interview; your public LinkedIn profile should not contain enough information for someone to steal your identity.

Your Active Solution: Edit Your Public View

Take control of your profile’s public visibility. LinkedIn makes it easy to decide exactly what information is visible to people outside your network.

Here is how you actively limit that personal information on your public profile:

1. Select Your Picture: Go to LinkedIn and click on your profile picture in the top right corner.
2. Go to Settings: Select View Profile from the menu.
3. Find the Public Settings: On your profile page, click Edit Public Profile and URL (it’s usually on the right-hand side).
4. Review and Edit Content: This page controls what non-members and search engines see. Review every section and hide unnecessary personal data.
   1. Hide Contact Info: Make sure your private phone number and personal email address are set to visible only to your connections (or hidden entirely).
   1. Limit Location Details: Set your location to the broadest area possible (e.g., “New York Metropolitan Area,” not your specific ZIP code or neighborhood).

Make any edits necessary and save. Regularly review this public profile view to ensure you are only sharing what is essential for your career and nothing more. Your professional networking shouldn’t come at the expense of your personal security.

That Google Nest speaker in your kitchen is an awesome assistant—it plays music, answers trivia questions, and sets timers perfectly. But for all its convenience, it is, first and foremost, a microphone constantly waiting for its wake word (“Hey Google” or “OK Google”).

While Google assures us that it only retains “relevant information” after a wake word is heard, we all know how easily those devices can be fooled. Words that sound close enough to the wake words can accidentally enable the device to start recording your conversations. These accidental triggers can capture sensitive snippets of private discussion, medical talk, or financial planning you never intended to share.

If you are serious about protecting your privacy, you need to take an active step: mute your Google Nest device when you are not expecting to use it.

Why the Physical Mute Button is the Best Defense

Unlike complicated settings hidden in an app, Google built in a simple, physical defense against unwanted recording: the microphone button.

When you use the microphone button to mute the device, you aren’t just sending a software command—you are physically disconnecting the microphone circuitry. This provides a level of certainty that no software setting can match. When that orange or red light is on, you know with absolute confidence that the device cannot hear you.

When Should You Hit Mute?

Make muting your Nest speaker a part of your daily security routine. A few prime times to hit that button:

• Before a Sensitive Call: If you have a private phone conversation, a virtual doctor’s appointment, or a remote work meeting, mute the speaker first.
• During Private Discussions: Anytime you and your family are discussing personal finances, health matters, or anything confidential.
• Before Bed: If you don’t plan to use your speaker during the night, mute it right before you go to sleep.

How to Mute Your Google Nest Device:

The process couldn’t be simpler:

• Locate the Microphone Button: This is typically a physical button or switch found on the back of the speaker.
• Push the Button: Once pushed, the device will visually confirm that the microphone is off, usually with an orange or red light.
• Unmute When Ready: When you want to use the assistant, simply push the button again.

Don’t leave your private conversations exposed to the risk of accidental recording. Take control of your home privacy and make that physical mute button your best friend!

Think about everything you’ve ever typed into the Google search bar over the years. We’re talking about everything: embarrassing symptoms, financial questions, personal research, and late-night curiosity. Every single one of those requests is recorded, indexed, and tied to your Google account.

Google saves this activity to personalize your experience—to give you faster results and better recommendations. But every single search you’ve run is a piece of data that contributes to your highly detailed digital profile. To preserve greater privacy and limit how much of your personal life is permanently stored online, you need to take an active step and remove your Google search history.

Why Your Search History is a Security Risk

You might think, “So what if Google knows I searched for ‘best pasta recipes’?” But the full picture of your search history—especially when combined with your location data and YouTube history—can reveal deeply sensitive information:

• Health and Medical Issues: Searches for symptoms, diagnoses, or medications.
• Financial Status: Searches for debt relief, mortgage rates, or investment losses.
• Private Beliefs: Searches for political, religious, or philosophical topics you may not discuss openly.

If your Google account is ever compromised by a hacker, or if someone gains access to your logged-in computer, that massive archive of your personal thoughts is instantly exposed. Deleting this history acts as a data clean-up, eliminating unnecessary risk.

Your Active Solution: The My Activity Dashboard

Fortunately, Google gives you the power to manage or delete this data through your My Activity dashboard. This page is the central hub for everything Google has recorded about you, not just searches.

How to Delete Your Google Search History:

1. Visit My Activity: Go to the My Activity page for your Google account: myactivity.google.com. You will likely need to log in.
2. Find the Delete Menu: Look for the “Delete activity by” option, usually located in the menu on the side or above the activity feed.
3. Choose Your Range: You can choose to delete your activity for:
   1. Last hour
   1. Last day
   1. All time
   1. A custom range
4. Select What to Delete: Make sure the Search product is selected (you can choose to delete other activity like YouTube or Maps history here, too!).
5. Confirm Deletion: Click through the final confirmation to permanently scrub that history from your Google Account.

Pro-Tip: Set Auto-Delete

If manually deleting your history feels like a chore, Google offers an Auto-Delete setting. You can choose to have your activity automatically and continuously deleted after a set time frame, such as 3, 18, or 36 months. This is a great way to set it and forget it, ensuring your digital footprint never grows too large.

Don’t let years of private searches sit unguarded in the cloud. Take an active step today to review, manage, and delete your Google search history to maintain your privacy.

You open your inbox and see a message that looks official: “Urgent Account Update Required,” “Verify Your Login Credentials,” or “Your Bank Account Has Been Frozen.” It looks like it came from your bank, your university, or even your workplace. The message demands that you click a link and “update your personal information immediately.”

Stop right there! This is one of the oldest, most effective scams in the book, known as phishing.

Here is the golden rule you must commit to memory: Most legitimate organizations—banks, universities, and reputable companies—will not request your personal, sensitive information over email. If an email asks you to click a link to update your Social Security number, credit card details, or password, it is almost certainly a malicious attempt to steal your identity.

The Information They Want to Steal

Hackers use these urgent-sounding emails to trick you into disclosing personally identifiable information (PII). This data is the currency of cybercrime, and they are hunting for:

• Financial Details: Credit card numbers, bank account logins, and insurance policy numbers.
• Identity Keys: Your full name, home address, telephone number, and Social Security number.
• Security Answers: Details like your mother’s maiden name or doctor’s name, which are often used as security questions.

Once they collect this PII, they can commit financial crimes, open new lines of credit in your name, and completely compromise your identity.

Your Active Defense Strategy: Don’t Click!

When you receive a suspicious email, do not let panic or urgency force you into a mistake. Use this three-step defense:

1. Avoid All Interaction

Do not open attachments, do not click on links, and do not respond to email messages from unknown senders or companies that ask for your personal information. Even replying to say “Stop sending me emails” confirms your email address is active, making you a bigger target.

2. Verify Directly, Not Via the Email

If you receive an email from “Bank of America” asking you to update your account, the correct procedure is not clicking the link in the email. Instead:

• Open a New Browser Tab: Manually type the bank’s official website address.
• Log In Normally: Log into your account the way you always do. If there is a legitimate alert or requirement to update information, it will be prominently displayed after you log in.
• Call Them: If you are truly concerned, call the organization using the official phone number found on your account statement or the back of your card—never the number provided in the email.

3. Check the Sender’s Email Address

Even if the display name says “Amazon,” look closely at the sender’s actual email address. Phishing attempts often use highly suspicious or generic addresses (e.g., [email protected] or [email protected]). A real company will use a clean domain.

Take control of your inbox. Be skeptical of any digital request for your PII, and verify everything through official, separate channels.

Cyber Week is here! The deals are fantastic, the discounts are deep, and the urge to click Buy Now is powerful. But with this incredible rush comes a massive spike in scams, fake websites, and phishing attacks. Hackers are actively leveraging the chaos and urgency of the holiday shopping season.

You need to shift into defensive mode. Don’t let the stress of finding the perfect gift compromise your security. By following a few active steps, you can grab all the bargains without handing over your sensitive data to cyber-Grinches.

Stop and Check: The Website Security Checklist

Before you ever enter your payment information, you must verify the site you’re on. Scammers are experts at creating “look-alike” websites that mimic major brands down to the logo and color scheme.

1. The URL is Your Reality Check

This is your single best defense. Before clicking anything, look closely at the URL in your browser’s address bar.

• Go Direct: Never click on a link in a promotional email or social media ad. Instead, type the retailer’s official URL directly into your browser (e.g., amazon.com, bestbuy.com). If the sale is real, you’ll find it there.
• Look for Typos: Check for subtle misspellings, extra hyphens, or unusual domain extensions (like .store or .deals). For example, amaz0n.com is fake!

2. Check for the Lock and the ‘S’

Always confirm that the website address begins with https:// and displays a closed padlock icon in the address bar. The ‘S’ means the connection is encrypted, protecting your payment data from interception. If you don’t see the padlock, close the tab immediately.

3. If the Deal is Too Good, It’s a Trap

If you see the latest, hard-to-find gadget being sold for 70% off its normal price, trust your gut. Extreme, unrealistic bargains are bait used to lure you onto fraudulent sites that simply steal your payment information and disappear.

Protect Your Money and Your Accounts

Once you’ve verified the website, you need to protect your financial credentials.

• Use a Credit Card, Not a Debit Card: Credit cards offer stronger fraud protection and do not give a thief direct access to the funds in your bank account. Should a scam occur, disputing a credit card charge is generally much easier and less financially disruptive.
• Use Unique, Strong Passwords: Don’t reuse your passwords for shopping accounts. If one retailer suffers a data breach, all your accounts are safe. Use a reliable password manager to generate and store long, unique passwords for every site.
• Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Turn on MFA for all your major shopping and financial accounts. This adds a critical second step (like a code sent to your phone) to your login, preventing a hacker from getting in even if they steal your password.
• Monitor Your Statements: Check your bank and credit card statements frequently throughout Cyber Week. Catching an unauthorized charge early allows you to report it faster and minimize damage.

Enjoy the deals, but remember to shop smart. Make cyber safety your number one priority this Cyber Week!