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Hackers are not created equal, nor do they have the same purpose. Some hackers are paid to scrutinize security systems, find loopholes, fix weaknesses, and ultimately protect organizations and people. Others exploit those same gaps for profit, power, or disruption. What separates hackers isn’t just skill level or tactics; it’s intent.
The purpose behind an attack changes everything about how hackers shape their tactics and how the hacking process unfolds: who is targeted, which methods and tools are used, how patient the attacker is, and the kind of damage they want to cause.
The primary motivations behind these cyberattacks fall into several categories, from financial gain to recognition, and sometimes even coercion. Each driver creates different risk scenarios for your digital life, from your home banking sessions to your workplace communications. Understanding a hacker’s motivations will enable you to better protect yourself and recognize potential threats in both your personal and professional life.
In this article, we’ll look at the main types of hackers you might encounter, the core motivations and mindset that drive these cyberattacks, and finally, how you can protect yourself against these attacks.
From its beginnings as an intellectual exploration in universities, hacking was driven by curiosity, learning, and the thrill of solving complex problems. Today, it has become industrialized with organized criminal groups and state-sponsored actors entering the scene.
Modern hacking has seen the emergence of advanced persistent threats and nation-state campaigns targeting critical infrastructure and combining traditional techniques with artificial intelligence. To better understand the types of hackers, here is a window into what they do and why:
These are the good guys, typically computer security experts who specialize in penetration testing and other methodologies to ensure that a company’s information systems are secure. These IT security professionals rely on a constantly evolving arsenal of technology to battle hackers.
These are the bad guys, who are typically referred to as just plain hackers. The term is often used specifically for hackers who break into networks or computers, or create computer viruses. Unfortunately, black hat hackers continue to technologically outpace white hats, often finding the path of least resistance, whether due to human error or laziness, or with a new type of attack. Hacking purists often use the term “crackers” to refer to black hat hackers, whose motivation is generally to get paid.
This is a derogatory term for black hat hackers who use borrowed programs to attack networks and deface websites in an attempt to make names for themselves. Script kiddies, sometimes called script kitties, might be beginners, but don’t be fooled by their newbie status. With the right tools and right targets, they can wreak as much havoc as a seasoned hacker.
Some hacker activists are motivated by politics or religion, while others aim to expose wrongdoing or exact revenge. Activists typically target government agencies, public services, and organizations involved in controversial issues related to defense, elections, wars, finance, or social movements. They also attack high-profile individuals, such as executives, public figures, journalists, and activists.
State-sponsored hackers have limitless time and funding to target civilians, corporations, other governments, or even prominent citizens connected to a larger objective. Their motivations are driven by their government’s strategic goals: gathering intelligence, stealing sensitive research or intellectual property, influencing public perception, or disrupting critical infrastructure. Because they are playing a long game, state-sponsored hackers are stealthy and persistent, quietly embedding themselves in systems, mapping networks, and waiting for the right moment to act.
Corporations hire hackers to infiltrate their competitors and steal trade secrets, including product designs, source code, pricing plans, customer lists, legal documents, and merger or acquisition strategies. They may hack from the outside or gain employment in order to act as a mole, impersonating recruiters, partners, or vendors to get insiders to share access. They also take advantage of weak internal controls, such as excessive permissions, unsecured file-sharing links, or poor offboarding practices. Spy hackers may use similar tactics as hacktivists or state-sponsored espionage on a smaller scale: stealthy entry, careful privilege escalation, and long-term persistence to avoid triggering alarms. The stolen data is often not leaked publicly but delivered directly to the client and used behind the scenes.
These hackers, generally motivated by religious or political beliefs, attempt to create terror, chaos, and real-world harm by disrupting critical infrastructures such as power grids, water systems, transportation networks, hospitals, emergency services, and government operations. They combine cyber operations with propaganda campaigns and physical attacks on the systems people rely on to live safely to create turmoil far beyond the screen.
Cybercriminals aren’t just faceless entities; they’re driven by specific goals that shape their tactics and targets. Understanding their motivations empowers you to recognize potential threats and better protect yourself, your family, and colleagues.
Money remains the most common motivator. These profit-driven attacks directly impact your personal finances through methods such as ransomware, credit card fraud, and identity theft. In your home, financially motivated hackers target your banking apps, shopping accounts, and personal devices to steal payment information or hold your data hostage. In the workplace, they focus on payroll systems, customer databases, and business banking credentials.
Ideologically driven hackers, called hacktivists, pursue political or social causes through cyber means. These attacks can disrupt services that you rely on daily, from public utilities to private organizations that provide essential services or take public stances on divisive issues. Your best defense involves staying informed about potential disruptions and maintaining backup communication methods for essential services.
Many hackers begin their journey with genuine curiosity about how systems work. They might probe your home network, test website security, or experiment with app vulnerabilities, not necessarily for malicious purposes, but their activities can still expose your data or disrupt services. In professional environments, these individuals might target systems or databases simply to see if they can gain access.
Some hackers seek fame, respect within hacker communities, or professional advancement rather than immediate financial benefit. They often target high-profile individuals, popular websites, or well-known companies to maximize the visibility for their exploits. If you have a significant social media following, your accounts could become targets for these attacks. They might also focus on defacing company or government websites, or leaking non-sensitive but embarrassing information.
Nation-state and corporate espionage are some of the most sophisticated threats in cyberspace, making it a top national security concern for both government and private sector. These operations compromise daily services and infrastructure such as internet service providers, email platforms, or cloud storage services to gather intelligence such as intellectual property, customer lists, or strategic planning documents.
Some hackers use cyber capabilities to intimidate or coerce victims into specific actions. In the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center report for 2024, extortion was the 2nd top cybercrime by number of complaints, demonstrating the growing prevalence of coercion-based attacks. Coercion might involve compromising personal photos, social media accounts, or private communications to demand payment or behavioral changes. Workplace coercion could target executives with embarrassing information or threaten to leak sensitive business data unless demands are met.
Many real-world attacks combine multiple motivations—a financially driven criminal might also seek recognition within hacker communities, or an ideological hacker might generate revenue through ransomware. The contrast between ethical hacker motivations and malicious ones often lies in the permission, legality, and intent. Understanding why people become hackers helps you recognize that not all hacking activity is inherently malicious, although all unauthorized access ultimately poses risks to your security and privacy.
Understanding the psychology behind cyberattacks gives you a powerful advantage in protecting yourself. When you know what drives hackers, you can better spot their tactics and stay one step ahead.
Many hackers operate with the goal of achieving high reward for perceived low risk. This risk-reward imbalance motivates attackers because they can potentially access valuable personal or financial information while remaining physically distant from their victims. This means hackers often target easy opportunities, such as when you click on suspicious links or download questionable attachments, to gain access with minimal effort. For instance, a hacker would rather send 10,000 phishing emails hoping for a few bites than attempt one complex, risky attack.
Hackers exploit well-known psychological shortcuts your brain takes. They understand that you’re more likely to trust familiar-looking emails, act quickly under pressure, or follow authority figures without question. These aren’t weaknesses, these are normal human responses that attackers deliberately manipulate. For example, urgent messages claiming your account will be closed create an artificial time pressure, making you more likely to click without thinking.
Many successful cyberattacks leverage the human tendency to follow what others are doing. Hackers create fake social media profiles, forge customer reviews, or impersonate colleagues to make their requests seem legitimate and widely accepted. In ransomware attacks targeting businesses, criminals often research company hierarchies and communication styles to make their demands appear to come from trusted sources within the organization.
Modern hacking has elements that make it feel like a game to perpetrators. Some online forums award points for successful attacks, creating competition and recognition among criminals. This helps explain why some hackers target individuals rather than large corporations, as every successful phishing attempt becomes a score, and why attacks continue to evolve.
Hackers don’t all use the same tricks, but most successful attacks rely on a familiar toolkit of methods that exploit common technical gaps and human habits. Recognizing these common techniques will help you avoid danger earlier on.
Your strongest defense against hacking combines technical safeguards, security awareness, and some consistent habits that shut down the most common paths attackers use. Here’s how to put those defenses in place and make your digital life a much harder target.
Now that you understand hackers’ motivations and psychological drivers, you can flip the script and turn it to your advantage. Instead of being the target, become the informed defender who recognizes manipulation tactics and responds thoughtfully rather than reactively. This knowledge empowers you to spot potential threats earlier, choose stronger protective measures, and navigate the digital world with greater confidence.
When someone pressures you to act immediately, that’s your cue to slow down and verify the request. Question familiar-looking messages, even if they look official. Check the sender’s address and contact the company through official channels. Trust your instincts and investigate before acting. Stay curious and keep learning from reputable cybersecurity resources that publish current research and threat intelligence. Share these tips with your family members and friends, especially those who might be less technologically savvy.
McAfee+ includes proactive identity surveillance to monitor subscribers’ credit and personal information, as well as access to live fraud resolution agents who can help subscribers work through the process of resolving identity theft issues.
The post 7 Types of Hacker Motivations appeared first on McAfee Blog.
It’s no longer possible to deny that your life in the physical world and your digital life are one and the same. Coming to terms with this reality will help you make better decisions in many aspects of your life.
The same identity you use at work, at home, and with friends also exists in apps, inboxes, accounts, devices, and databases, whether you actively post online or prefer to stay quiet. Every purchase, login, location ping, and message leaves a trail. And that trail shapes what people, companies, and scammers can learn about you, how they can reach you, and what they might try to take.
That’s why digital security isn’t just an IT or a “tech person” problem. It’s a daily life skill. When you understand how your digital life works, what information you’re sharing, where it’s stored, and how it can be misused, you make better decisions. This guide is designed to help you build that awareness and translate it into practical habits: protecting your data, securing your accounts, and staying in control of your privacy in a world that’s always connected.
Being digitally secure doesn’t mean hiding from the internet or using complicated tools you don’t understand. It means having intentional control over your digital life to reduce risks while still being able to live, work, and communicate online safely. A digitally secure person focuses on four interconnected areas:
Your personal data is the foundation of your digital identity. Protecting it includes limiting how much data you share, understanding where it’s stored, and reducing how easily it can be collected, sold, or stolen. At its heart, personal information falls into two critical categories that require different levels of protection:
Account security ensures that only you can access them. Strong, unique passwords, multi-factor authentication, and secure recovery options prevent criminals from hijacking your email, banking, cloud storage, social media, and other online accounts, often the gateway to everything else in your digital life.
Privacy control means setting boundaries and deciding who can see what about you, and under what circumstances. This includes managing social media visibility, app permissions, browser tracking, and third-party access to your data.
Digital security is an ongoing effort as threats evolve, platforms change their policies, and new technologies introduce new risks. Staying digitally secure requires periodic check-ins, learning to recognize scams and manipulation, and adjusting your habits as the digital landscape changes.
Your personal information faces exposure risks through multiple channels during routine digital activities, often without your explicit knowledge.
Implementing comprehensive personal data protection requires a systematic approach that addresses the common exposure points. These practical steps provide layers of security that work together to minimize your exposure to identity theft and fraud.
Start by conducting a thorough audit of your online accounts and subscriptions to identify where you have unnecessarily shared more data than needed. Remove or minimize details that aren’t essential for the service to function. Moving forward, provide only the minimum required information to new accounts and avoid linking them across different platforms unless necessary.
Be particularly cautious with loyalty programs, surveys, and promotional offers that ask for extensive personal information, as they may share it with third parties. Read privacy policies carefully, focusing on sections that describe data sharing, retention periods, and your rights regarding your personal information.
If possible, consider using separate email addresses for different accounts to limit cross-platform tracking and reduce the impact if one account is compromised. Create dedicated email addresses for shopping, social media, newsletters, and important accounts like banking and healthcare.
Privacy protection requires regular attention to your account settings across all platforms and services you use. Social media platforms frequently update their privacy policies and settings, often defaulting to less private configurations that allow them to collect and share your data. For this reason, it is a good idea to review your privacy settings at least quarterly. Limit who can see your posts, contact information, and friend lists. Disable location tracking, facial recognition, and advertising customization features that rely on your personal data. Turn off automatic photo tagging and prevent search engines from indexing your profile.
On Google accounts, visit your Activity Controls and disable Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History to stop this data from being saved. You can even opt out of ad personalization entirely if desired by adjusting Google Ad Settings. If you are more tech savvy, Google Takeout allows you to export and review what data Google has collected about you.
For Apple ID accounts, you can navigate to System Preferences on Mac or Settings on iOS devices to disable location-based Apple ads, limit app tracking, and review which apps have access to your contacts, photos, and other personal data.
Meanwhile, Amazon accounts store extensive purchase history, voice recordings from Alexa devices, and browsing behavior. Review your privacy settings to limit data sharing with third parties, delete voice recordings, and manage your advertising preferences.
Regularly audit the permissions you’ve granted to installed applications. Many apps request far more permissions to your location, contacts, camera, and microphone even though they don’t need them. Cancel these unnecessary permissions, and be particularly cautious about granting access to sensitive data.
Create passwords that actually protect you; they should be long and complex enough that even sophisticated attacks can’t easily break them. Combine uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters to make it harder for attackers to crack.
Aside from passwords, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on your most critical accounts: banking and financial services, email, cloud storage, social media, work, and healthcare. Use authenticator apps such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy rather than SMS-based authentication when possible, as text messages can be intercepted through SIM swapping attacks. When setting up MFA, ensure you save backup codes in a secure location and register multiple devices when possible to keep you from being locked out of your accounts if your primary authentication device is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Alternatively, many services now offer passkeys which use cryptographic keys stored on your device, providing stronger security than passwords while being more convenient to use. Consider adopting passkeys for accounts that support them, particularly for your most sensitive accounts.
Device encryption protects your personal information if your smartphone, tablet, or laptop is lost, stolen, or accessed without authorization. Modern devices typically offer built-in encryption options that are easy to enable and don’t noticeably impact performance.
You can implement automatic backup systems such as secure cloud storage services, and ensure backup data is protected. iOS users can utilize encrypted iCloud backups, while Android users should enable Google backup with encryption. Regularly test your backup systems to ensure they’re working correctly and that you can successfully restore your data when needed.
Identify major data brokers that likely have your information and look for their privacy policy or opt-out procedures, which often involves submitting a request with your personal information and waiting for confirmation that your data has been removed.
In addition, review your subscriptions and memberships to identify services you no longer use. Request account deletion rather than simply closing accounts, as many companies retain data from closed accounts. When requesting deletion, ask specifically for all personal data to be removed from their systems, including backups and archives.
Keep records of your opt-out and deletion requests, and follow up if you don’t receive confirmation within the stated timeframe. In the United States, key data broker companies include Acxiom, LexisNexis, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, and PeopleFinder. Visit each company’s website.
Connect only to trusted, secure networks to reduce the risk of your data being intercepted by attackers lurking behind unsecured or fake Wi-Fi connections. Avoid logging into sensitive accounts on public networks in coffee shops, airports, or hotels, and use encrypted connections such as HTTPS or a virtual private network to hide your IP address and block third parties from monitoring your online activities.
Rather than using a free VPN service that often collects and sells your data to generate revenue, it is better to choose a premium, reputable VPN service that doesn’t log your browsing activities and offers servers in multiple locations.
Cyber threats evolve constantly, privacy policies change, and new services collect different types of personal information, making personal data protection an ongoing process rather than a one-time task. Here are measures to help regularly maintain your personal data protection:
By implementing these systematic approaches and maintaining regular attention to your privacy settings and data sharing practices, you significantly reduce your risk of identity theft and fraud while maintaining greater control over your digital presence and personal information.
You don’t need to dramatically overhaul your entire digital security in one day, but you can start making meaningful improvements right now. Taking action today, even small steps, builds the foundation for stronger personal data protection and peace of mind in your digital life. Choose one critical account, update its password, enable multi-factor authentication, and you’ll already be significantly more secure than you were this morning. Your future self will thank you for taking these proactive steps to protect what matters most to you.
Every step you take toward better privacy protection strengthens your overall digital security and reduces your risk of becoming a victim of scams, identity theft, or unwanted surveillance. You’ve already taken the first step by learning about digital security risks and solutions. Now it’s time to put that knowledge into action with practical steps that fit seamlessly into your digital routine.
The post What Does It Take To Be Digitally Secure? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The holidays are just around the corner and amid the hustle and bustle, many of us will fire up our devices to go online, order gifts, plan travel, and spread cheer. But while we’re getting festive, the cybercriminals are getting ready to take advantage of the influx of your good cheer to spread scams and malware.
With online shopping expected to grow by 7.9% year-on-year in the U.S. alone in 2025, according to Mastercard, and more people than ever using social media and mobile devices to connect, the cybercriminals have a lot of opportunities to spoil our fun. Using multiple devices provides the bad guys with more ways to access your valuable “digital assets,” such as personal information and files, especially if the devices are under-protected.
In this guide, let’s look into the 12 most common cybercrimes and scams of Christmas, and what you can do to keep your money, information, and holiday spirit safe.
The festive atmosphere, continued increase in online shopping activity, and charitable spirit that define the holidays create perfect conditions for scammers to exploit your generosity and urgency.
Not surprisingly, digital criminals become more active and professional during this period, driven even more by the increasing power of artificial intelligence. A new McAfee holiday shopping report revealed that 86% of consumers surveyed receive a daily average of 11 shopping-related text or email messages that seem suspicious. This includes 3 scam texts, 5 emails, and 3 social media messages. Meanwhile, 22% admit they have been scammed during a holiday season in the past.
Their scams succeed because they exploit the psychological and behavioral patterns that are rife during the holidays. The excitement and time pressure of holiday shopping often prevail over our usual caution, while the emotional aspects of gift-giving and charitable donations can be exploited and move us to be more generous. Meanwhile, scammers understand that you’re more likely to make quick purchasing decisions when the fear of missing out on limited-time offers overtakes your judgment or when you’re rushing to find the perfect gift before it’s too late.
Overall, the frenzied seasonal themes create an environment where criminals can misuse the urgency of their fake offers and cloud our judgment, making fraudulent emails and websites appear more legitimate, while you’re already operating under the stress of holiday deadlines and budget concerns. After all, holiday promotions and charity appeals are expected during this time of year.
Now that you understand the psychology behind the scams, it’s time to become more aware of the common scams that cybercriminals run during the holiday season.
As you head online this holiday season, stay on guard and stay aware of scammers’ attempts to steal your money and your information. Familiarize yourself with the “12 Scams of Christmas” to ensure a safe and happy holiday season:
Many of us use social media sites to connect with family, friends, and co-workers over the holidays, and the cybercriminals know that this is a good place to catch you off guard because we’re all “friends,” right? Here are some ways that criminals will use these channels to obtain shoppers gift money, identity or other personal information:
As the popularity of smartphone apps has grown, so have the chances of you downloading a malicious application that steals your information or sends premium-rate text messages without your knowledge. Apps ask for more permissions than they need, such as access to your contacts or location.
If you unwrap a new smartphone this holiday season, make sure that you only download applications from official app stores and check other users’ reviews, as well as the app’s permission policies, before downloading. Software, such as McAfee Mobile Security, can also help protect you against dangerous apps.
Many of us travel to visit family and friends over the holidays. We begin our journey online by looking for deals on airfare, hotels, and rental cars. Before you book, keep in mind that scammers are looking to hook you with phony travel webpages with too-fantastic deals—beautiful pictures and rock-bottom prices—to deceive you into handing over your financial details and money.
Even when you’re already on the road, you need to be careful. Sometimes, scammers who have gained unauthorized access to hotel Wi-Fi will release a malicious pop-up ad on your device screen, and prompt you to install software before connecting. If you agree to the installation, it downloads malware onto your machine. To thwart such an attempt, it’s important that you perform a security software update before traveling.
You are probably already familiar with email phishing and SMiShing messages containing questionable offers and links. The scammer will mimic a legitimate organization offering cheap Rolex watches and luxury products as the “perfect gift” for that special someone, or send a message posing as your bank with a holiday promo and try to lure you into revealing information or direct you to a fake webpage. Never respond to these scams or click on an included link. Be aware that real banks won’t ask you to divulge personal information via text message. If you have any questions about your accounts, you should contact your bank directly.
QR code phishing, or “quishing,” has emerged as a significant new threat during holiday shopping seasons. In this scam method, cybercriminals place malicious QR codes in holiday advertisements posted on social media or printed flyers, parking meters and payment kiosks at shopping centers, or at restaurant tables during holiday dining. They could also email attachments claiming to offer exclusive holiday deals or fake shipping labels placed over legitimate tracking QR codes.
The kind of excitement and buzz surrounding Apple’s new iPad and iPhone is just what cybercrooks dream of when they plot their scams. They will mention must-have holiday gifts in dangerous links, phony contests, and phishing emails to grab your attention. Once they’ve caught your eye, they will again try to get you to reveal personal information or click on a dangerous link that could download malware onto your machine. Be suspicious of any deal mentioning hot holiday gift items—especially at extremely low prices—and try to verify the offer with the real retailer involved.
Cybercriminals exploit employee expectations of year-end communications by creating fake emails that appear to come from your HR department. These messages often claim to contain annual bonus information, updated benefits packages, or mandatory holiday attendance announcements. These scams are particularly effective because they prey on legitimate employee concerns about compensation, benefits, and personal time off during the holiday season. The emails often feature real-looking company logos, proper formatting, and even references to company policies to increase their credibility.
Gift cards are probably the perfect gift for some people on your holiday list. Given their popularity, cybercriminals can’t help but want to get in on the action by offering bogus gift cards online. Be wary of buying gift cards from third parties. It’s best to buy from the official retailer. Just imagine how embarrassing it would be to find out that the gift card you gave your mother-in-law was fraudulent!
No matter what gift you’re looking for, chances are you can find it quickly and easily online, but you still want to be careful in selecting which site to shop. By promoting great deals, phony e-commerce sites will try to convince you to type in your credit card number and other personal details. After obtaining your money and information, you never receive the merchandise, and your personal information is put at risk. To prevent falling victim to bogus e-commerce stores, shop only at trusted and well-known e-commerce sites. If you’re shopping on a site for the first time, check other users’ reviews and verify that the phone number listed on the site is legitimate.
This is one of the biggest scams of every holiday season. As we open our hearts and wallets, the bad guys will send spam emails and pretend to be a real charity in the hope of getting in on the giving. Their emails will sport a stolen logo and copycat text, or come from an entirely invented charity. If you want to give, it’s always safer to visit the charity’s legitimate website, and do a little research about the charity before you donate.
E-cards are a popular way to send a quick “thank you” or holiday greeting. While most e-cards are safe, some are malicious and may contain spyware or viruses that download onto your computer once you click on the link to view the greeting. Before clicking, look for clues that the e-card is legitimate. Make sure it comes from a well-known e-card site by checking the domain name of the included link. Also check to see that the sender is someone you actually know, and that there are no misspellings or other red flags that the card is a fake.
With increased package deliveries during the holiday season, fake shipping notifications have become a common attack. These messages claim to be from legitimate shipping companies such as UPS, FedEx, or DHL, informing you of package delivery attempts or shipping delays. To complete the delivery, these notices will ask you to click on malicious links or attachments that will download malware or direct you to fake websites that will steal personal information. The timing of these attacks coincides with legitimate increased shipping activity, making them harder to distinguish from authentic communications. To track your deliveries, it is best to check the shipping company’s real website or through the trusted platform from which you ordered the product.
Knowing about these common scam tactics is only the first step toward protecting yourself and those you care about. The next step is for you to learn and implement practical, effective strategies to stay safe while still enjoying digital holiday shopping and giving.
The holiday season brings joy and connection, but it’s also a time when scammers work hardest to exploit your festive but rushed and distracted spirit. Effective Christmas scam prevention starts with awareness. By slowing down and taking a moment to verify before you click or buy, and using layered cybersecurity protections, you can worry about one less thing and focus on what matters most this season.
Stay security-conscious without letting fear diminish your holiday enjoyment and pursue your digital holiday activities with the right knowledge and tools. We hope that the specific, actionable protections will help you identify red flags, verify legitimate offers, secure your devices and accounts, and respond effectively to suspicious activity. Stay informed by following trusted sources for the latest cybersecurity tips during the holidays, and make this season about celebrating safely with the people you care about most.
Send the link to this page to your family and friends to increase their awareness and take steps to protect themselves.
The post The Top 12 Scams Of Christmas To Watch Out For appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Thanksgiving—not before Halloween as we see things in stores and online now. It seems like the holiday season and decorations start earlier and earlier every year.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is that Black Friday is still a big shopping day. With the advent of online shopping has emerged Cyber Monday, another big sale day for online shoppers on the first Monday after Thanksgiving.
Although many of us may take advantage of these great deals that the holidays offer, we also need to be aware of the risks. Online shopping is a fun and convenient way to make purchases, locate hard-to-find items, and discover bargains, but we need to take steps to protect ourselves.
This guide looks at the methods and warning signs behind online shopping scams, shows you how to recognize fake shopping apps and websites, and shares tips for staying safe online.
Online shopping has become a cornerstone of American life. CapitalOne Shopping projects American online spending to reach $1.34 trillion in 2024 and exceed $2.5 trillion in 2030.
With such a massive sum at stake, cybercriminals are laser-focused on taking a share of it, posing financial risk to the 288 million Americans who shop online. As e-commerce grows, so does fraud. In 2024, e-commerce fraud was valued at $44.3 billion, a number seen to grow by 141% to $107 billion in 2029.
Be that as it may, there are many smart shopping habits you can apply to dramatically reduce your risk of becoming a victim of online shopping fraud and enjoy the convenience and benefits of online commerce.
Online shopping scams are designed to look normal—at first glance—especially during busy sale seasons when we’re distracted by a million preparations, moving fast, and chasing deals. These are the very circumstances that fraudsters bank on to victimize you into taking the bait. Being aware of the common scam indicators will help you pause and think, recognize trouble early, and protect both your money and your personal information.
Safe online shopping starts with recognizing the hallmarks of legitimate retailers. Before you enter any payment details, take a moment to verify that the website you’re shopping on is genuine. Scam stores can look polished and convincing, but they often leave behind subtle clues. Here are quick ways to check their authenticity:
trustmark, indicating that the site has been scanned and verified as secure by a trusted third party. This security seal indicates that the site will help protect you from identity theft, credit card fraud, spam, and other malicious threats.The FTC also recommends these additional tips so you can enjoy all the advantages that online shopping has to offer and prevent risking your personal information.
Online shopping should feel exciting, not a dangerous undertaking you have to brace for, especially during the season of giving. It can be, with a few simple steps—checking the URL, looking for HTTPS, verifying the seller, paying with a credit card or virtual number, and trusting your gut when something feels suspicious. These small habits will keep your money and your identity where they belong: with you.
For increased safety while shopping online, seek out the help of a trusted security solution such as McAfee+ that will alert you of risky links and compromised websites to prevent identity theft or malware infection.
If this guide helps you, pass it along to someone you care about. Scams don’t just target individuals—they cascade into families and friend groups. The more we normalize safe shopping habits and increase our vigilance, the harder it is for fraudsters to win. If you ever feel unsure mid-purchase, take a breath and double-check. A few extra seconds now can save you a lot of stress later. Stay safe, and happy shopping!
The post Helpful Tips for Safe Online Shopping appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Even as passkeys and biometric sign-ins become more common, nearly every service still relies on a password somewhere in the process—email, banking, social media, health portals, streaming, work accounts, and device logins.
Most people, however, don’t realize the many ways we make our accounts vulnerable due to weak passwords, enabling hackers to easily crack them. In truth, password security isn’t complicated once you understand what attackers do and what habits stop them.
In this guide, we will look into the common mistakes we make in creating passwords and offer tips on how you can improve your password security. With a few practical changes, you can make your accounts dramatically harder to compromise.
Modern password strength comes down to three truths. First, length matters more than complexity. Every extra character multiplies the number of guesses an attacker must make. Second, unpredictability matters because attack tools prioritize the most expected human choices first. Third, usability matters because rules that are painful to follow lead to workarounds like reuse, tiny variations, or storing written passwords in unsafe ways. Strong password security is a system you can sustain, not a heroic one-time effort.
Strong passwords serve as digital barriers that are more difficult for attackers to compromise. Mathematically, password strength works in your favor when you choose well. A password containing 12 characters with a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols creates over 95 trillion possible combinations. Even with advanced computing power, testing all these combinations requires substantial time and resources that most attackers prefer to invest in easier targets.
This protection multiplies when you use a unique password for each account. Instead of one compromised password providing access to multiple services, attackers must overcome several independent security challenges, dramatically reducing your overall risk profile.
Developing strong password security habits offers benefits beyond protecting your accounts. These habits contribute to your overall digital security posture and create positive momentum for other security improvements, such as:
On the other hand, weak passwords are not just a mild inconvenience. They enable account takeovers and identity theft, and can become the master key to your other accounts. Here’s a closer look at the consequences:
Account takeover happens when cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to your online accounts using compromised credentials. They could impersonate you across your entire digital presence, from email to social media. For instance, they can send malicious messages to your contacts, make unauthorized purchases, and change your account recovery information to lock you out permanently.
The effects of an account takeover can persist for years. You may discover that attackers used your accounts to create new accounts in your name, resulting in damaged relationships and credit scores, contaminated medical records, employment difficulties, and legal complications with law enforcement.
Financial losses from password-related breaches aren’t limited to money stolen from your accounts. Additional costs often include:
The stress and time required to resolve these issues also affect your overall well-being and productivity.
Your passwords also guard your personal communications, private photos, confidential documents, and intimate details about your life. When these barriers fail, you could find your personal photos and messages shared without consent, confidential business information in competitors’ hands. The psychological, emotional, and professional impact of violated trust can persist long after the immediate crisis passes.
You can dramatically improve your password security with relatively small changes. No need to invest in expensive or highly technical tools to substantially improve your security. Here are some simple tips for better password security:
If you take away only one insight from this article, let it be this: password length is your biggest advantage. A long password creates a search effort that brute force tools will take a long time to finish. Instead of trying to remember short strings packed with symbols, use passphrases made of several unrelated words. Something like “candle-river-planet-tiger-47” is both easy to recall and extremely hard to crack. For most accounts, 12–16 characters is a solid minimum; for critical accounts, longer is even better.
Password reuse is the reason credential stuffing works. When one site is breached, attackers immediately test those leaked credentials on other services. If you reuse those credentials, you have effectively given the keys to your kingdom. Unique passwords can block that entry. Even if a shopping site leaks your password, your email and banking stay protected because their passwords are different.
Attackers always try the obvious human choices first: names, birthdays, pets, favorite teams, cities, schools, and anything else that could be pulled from social media or public records. Even combinations that feel “creative,” such as a pet name plus a year, tend to be predictable to cracking tools. Your password should be unrelated to your life.
In the past, security experts encouraged people to replace letters with symbols such as turning “password” into “P@ssw0rd” and calling it secure. That advice no longer holds today, as attack tools catch these patterns instantly. The same goes for keyboard walks (qwerty, asdfgh), obvious sequences (123456), and small variations like “MyPassword1” and “MyPassword2.” If your password pattern makes sense to a human, a modern cracking tool will decipher it in seconds.
Humans think they’re random, but they aren’t. We pick symbols and words that look good together, follow habits, and reuse mental templates. Two reliable ways to break that habit are using Diceware—an online dice-rolling tool that selects words from a list—and password generators, which create randomness better than your human brain. In addition, the variety of characters in your password impacts its strength. Using only lowercase letters gives you 26 possible characters per position, while combining uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols expands this to over 90 possibilities.
Not every account needs the same level of complexity, but every account needs to be better than weak. For email, banking, and work systems, use longer passphrases or manager-generated passwords of 20 characters or more. For daily convenience accounts such as shopping or social media, a slightly shorter but still unique passphrase is fine. For low-stakes logins you rarely use, still keep at least a 12-character unique password. This keeps your accounts secure without being mentally exhausting.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) adds a second checkpoint in your security, stopping most account takeovers even if your password leaks. Authenticator apps are stronger than SMS codes, which can be intercepted in SIM-swap attacks. Hardware or physical security keys are even stronger. Start with your email and financial accounts, then expand to everything that offers MFA.
A perfect password is useless if you type it into the wrong place. Phishing attacks work by imitating legitimate login pages or sending urgent messages that push you to click. Build the habit of checking URLs in unsolicited emails or texts, being wary of pressure tactics, and taking a moment to question the message. When in doubt, open a fresh tab and navigate to the service directly.
You may not know it, but shared computers may carry keyloggers, unsafe browser extensions, or saved sessions from other users. If you have no choice but to sign in using a shared device, don’t allow the browser to save your log-in details, log out fully afterward, and change the password later from your own device.
On public networks in places like such as cafes or airports, cybercriminals could be prowling for their next victim. Attackers sometimes create fake hotspots with familiar names to trick people into connecting. Even on real public Wi-Fi, traffic can be intercepted. The safest choice is to avoid logging into sensitive accounts on public networks. If you must use public Wi-Fi, protect yourself by using a reputable virtual private network and verify the site uses HTTPS.
Many password thefts happen as a result of compromised devices and software. Outdated operating systems and browsers can contain security vulnerabilities known to hackers, leading to malware invasion, session hijacking, or credential harvesting. The best recourse is to set up automatic updates for your OS, browser, and antivirus tool to remove a huge chunk of risk with no additional effort from you.
Password managers solve two hard problems at once: creating strong unique passwords and remembering them. They store credentials in an encrypted vault protected by a master password, generate high-entropy passwords automatically, and often autofill only on legitimate sites (which also helps against phishing). In practice, password managers are what make “unique passwords everywhere” feasible.
Among all others, your master password that opens your password manager is the one credential you must memorize. Make it long, passphrase-style, and make sure you have never reused it anywhere else. Then add MFA to the manager itself. This makes it extremely difficult for someone to get into your vault even if they somehow learn your master password.
The old “change every 90 days no matter what” guideline could backfire, leading to password-creation fatigue and encouraging people to make only tiny predictable tweaks. A smarter approach is to update only when something changes in your risk: a breach, a suspicious login alert, or a health warning from your password manager. For critical accounts, doing a yearly review is a reasonable rhythm.
Unused accounts are easy to forget and easy to compromise. Delete services you don’t use anymore, and review which third-party apps are connected to your Google, Apple, Microsoft, or social logins. Each unnecessary connection is another doorway you don’t need open.
As mentioned in the tips above, passphrases have become the better, more secure alternative to traditional passwords. A passphrase is essentially a long password made up of multiple words, forming a phrase or sentence that’s meaningful to you but not easily guessed by others.
Attackers use sophisticated programs that can guess billions of predictable password combinations per second using common passwords, dictionary words, and patterns. But when you string together four random words, you create over 1.7 trillion possible combinations, even though the vocabulary base contains only 2,000 common words.
Your brain, meanwhile, is great at remembering stories and images. When you think “Coffee Bicycle Mountain 47,” you might imagine riding your bike up a mountain with your morning coffee, stopping at mile marker 47. That mental image sticks with you in ways that “K7#mQ9$x” never could.
The approach blending unpredictability and the human ability to remember stories offers the ideal combination of security and usability.
To help you create more effective passphrases, here are a few principles you can follow:
Password managers are encrypted digital vaults that store all your login credentials behind a single master password. They are your personal security assistant that never forgets, never sleeps, and constantly works to keep your accounts protected with unique, complex passwords.
Modern password managers create passwords that are truly random, combining uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters in patterns that are virtually impossible for cybercriminals to guess or crack through brute force attacks. These passwords typically range from 12 to 64 characters long, exceeding what most people could realistically remember or type consistently.
The encrypted format scrambles your passwords using advanced cryptographic algorithms before being saved. This means that even if someone gained access to your password manager’s servers, your actual passwords would appear as meaningless strings of random characters without the encryption key. Only you possess this key through your master password.
The auto-fill functionality also offers convenience, recognizing the login page of your account and instantly filling in your username and password with a single click or keystroke. This seamless process happens across operating systems, browsers, and devices—your computer, smartphone, and tablet—keeping your credentials synchronized and accessible wherever you need them.
Selecting the right password manager requires careful consideration of several factors that directly impact your security and user experience.
The reputation and track record of the company offering the password manager should be your first consideration. Look for companies that have been operating in the security space for several years and have a transparent approach to security practices.
Reputable companies regularly undergo independent security audits by third-party cybersecurity firms to examine the password manager’s code, encryption methods, and overall security architecture. Companies that publish these audit results demonstrate transparency and commitment to security.
Also consider password managers that use AES-256 encryption, currently the gold standard for data protection used by government agencies and financial institutions worldwide. Additionally, ensure the password manager employs zero-knowledge architecture, meaning the company cannot access your passwords even if they wanted to.
Intuitive user interface, reliable auto-fill functionality, responsive customer support, and ease of use should be checked as well. A password manager that is confusing to navigate or constantly malfunctions will likely be abandoned, defeating the purpose of improved password security.
Choose a solution that offers other features aside from the basic password storage. Modern password managers often include secure note storage for sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, passport details, password sharing capabilities for family accounts, and dark web monitoring that alerts you if your credentials appear in data breaches.
Strong password security doesn’t have to be complicated. Small changes you make today can dramatically improve your digital security. By creating unique, lengthy passwords or passphrases for each account and enabling multi-factor authentication on your most important services, you’re taking control of your online safety.
Consider adopting a reputable password manager to simplify the process while maximizing your protection. It’s one of the smartest investments you can make for your digital security.
The post 15 Vital Tips To Better Password Security appeared first on McAfee Blog.
A determined cybercriminal can find ways to guess or predict an individual’s Social Security number, which increases the risk of identity theft for all of us.
In 2009, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University revealed that a reliable method for predicting Social Security numbers was discovered using information from social networking sites, data brokers, voter registration lists, online white pages, and the publicly available Social Security Administration’s Death Master File.
Originally, the first three numbers on a Social Security card represented the state in which a person had initially applied for their card. Numbers started in the Northeast and moved westward. This meant that people born on the East Coast were assigned the lowest numbers and those born on the West Coast were assigned the highest numbers. Before 1986, people were rarely assigned a Social Security number until age 14 or so, since the numbers were used for income tracking purposes.
The Carnegie Mellon researchers were able to guess the first five digits of a Social Security number on their first attempt for 44% of people born after 1988. For those in less populated states, the researchers had a 90% success rate. In fewer than 1,000 attempts, the researchers could identify a complete Social Security number, “making SSNs akin to 3-digit financial PINs.” The researchers concluded, “Unless mitigating strategies are implemented, the predictability of SSNs exposes people born after 1988 to risks of identity theft on mass scales.”
To address this security gap, the Social Security Administration in 2011 changed the way SSNs are issued by randomizing number assignment to make predicting patterns more difficult. While this is certainly an accomplishment, the potential to predict Social Security numbers is the least of our problems. Social Security numbers can be found in unprotected file cabinets and databases in thousands of government offices, corporations, and educational institutions, exposing people to identity theft and other related risks. With the growing losses from all identity theft cases, protecting SSNs is a serious concern.
Your Social Security number might be only nine digits, but in the wrong hands, it can act like a master key that unlocks far more. It can reveal details about your life, serving as a powerful linking tool for cybercriminals to access or verify other personal details and build a more comprehensive profile of your identity.
Your Social Security number is one of your most private identifiers, but in today’s data economy, it can quietly slip into criminal marketplaces on the dark web. Even if you’re careful with your information, you can’t control how organizations protect the data they collect from you. These exposures often result from data breaches, scams, or systems you had to trust — employers, hospitals, banks, schools, and even government agencies. When your SSN shows up there, it’s usually bundled with your other information—name, birthdate, address—making it far more valuable and dangerous than a random number on its own.
Being familiar with the common paths that take your SSN to the dark web will help you recognize and avoid the risks earlier, and act fast if your information is ever compromised.
Once criminals have your SSN, they can do a range of fraudulent activities that can compromise your relationships, health, career, financial standing, and even your freedom. A single SSN can fuel everything from credit and loan scams to tax fraud, medical identity theft, and even long-term schemes like synthetic identities. Here are some examples:
Social Security identity theft isn’t always obvious right away. In many cases, people don’t realize their SSN has been compromised until weeks or months later. If you want to know if your SSN has been misused, there are clear warning signs and reliable ways to check. By reviewing a few key records, you can spot red flags early and shut down fraud before it snowballs into a long, expensive recovery process.
If you discover that someone has been using your SSN, take these steps immediately:
Since your SSN can’t be easily changed and is still treated like a universal ID, the safest approach is to put up barriers that make it harder for criminals to use, even if they get it. Aside from the steps listed above, here are additional measures you can follow to protect your SSN from the start:
Federal law requires SSN disclosure in specific situations. Organizations can legally require your SSN when no reasonable alternative exists and when they have a specific legal requirement or legitimate business need, such as:
When an organization requests your SSN, they must provide what’s called a disclosure statement, as clarified under the updated Privacy Act of the Department of Justice’s Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties. Legitimate organizations requesting your SSN must tell you:
If an organization can’t provide clear answers to these questions, that’s a red flag. The FTC’s consumer guidance emphasizes that you have the right to understand why your SSN is needed before you provide it.
You can typically decline when it’s not a necessity, alternative identification exists, it seems excessive, and there is no clear legal requirement. Common situations where you can often say no include gym memberships, retail purchases, job applications that don’t require credit checks, and various service sign-ups.
When you need to verify your identity but want to minimize SSN exposure, several alternatives can work depending on the situation:
While it’s concerning that Social Security numbers can be predicted or leaked through data breaches, you’re not powerless against SSN identity theft. The practical steps we’ve outlined put you firmly in control of your personal information security—from placing credit freezes and setting up IRS IP PINs to securing your Social Security Administration account with strong authentication. Take action today by implementing these protective measures to reduce your risk significantly.
For added security, consider a McAfee Identity Protection plan to experience proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your financial accounts.
The post Smart Ways to Keep Your Social Security Number from Being Cracked appeared first on McAfee Blog.
If you think your Gmail account’s been hacked, you’ll want to act. And act quickly.
The fact is that your email has all manner of personal info in there. Receipts, tax correspondence, medical info, and so on. With a hacked account, that info might get deleted, shared, or used against you for identity theft.
Luckily, Google has mechanisms in place to restore a hacked Gmail account. We’ll walk through the steps here — and a few others that can keep you secure in the long term after you have your account back.
Several things can tip you off, including:
With varying degrees of certainty, those are some signs that your account has been hacked.
Also, many people have a Google Account linked with their Gmail password and login. Beyond email, that might include files in Google Drive, photos, a YouTube account, and other features that contain personal info. In those cases, that only increases the potential harm of a hacked account.
Additionally, services like Google Pay and Google Play complicate matters more in the event of a hacked account because they contain financial info.
If you see any unusual changes in those apps or services, that might be a sign of a hacked account as well.
If you think someone else has changed your password or deleted your account, head to Google’s account recovery page. It’ll take you through a multi-step process to restore your account.
With that, you’ll want to do some quick prep. First, do your best to begin the recovery process with a device that you typically use to access your account. Also, if possible, do it in a location where you typically access your account. This provides Google with identifiers that you are who you say you are.
After that, gather up your Gmail account passwords, old and current. The recovery page will ask for them, along with other questions. Do your best to answer each question the very best you can. There’s no penalty for a wrong answer and the more info you can provide, the better.
If you can log into your account, yet worry it’s been hacked, take these steps:
Next, run a virus scan on your device. Your password might have gotten compromised in one of several ways, including malware. This can remove any malware that might be spying on your device (and your passwords).
At this point, create a new password that’s strong and unique. Use at least 14 characters using a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, symbols, and numbers. Or have a password manager do that work for you.
And finally, set two-factor verification on your account if you aren’t already using it. This makes your account far tougher to hack, as two-factor verification requires a unique code to log in. One that only you receive. And just like with your password, never share your unique code. Anyone asking for it is a scammer.
By taking the steps we just covered, you’ve done two important things that can protect you moving forward. One is setting up a strong, unique password. The second is using two-factor verification.
The next thing is to get comprehensive online protection in place. Protection like you’ll find in our McAfee+ plans offers several features that can keep you and your accounts safe.
Once again, your password got compromised one way or another. It could have been spyware on your device. It could have been a phishing attack. It could have been a data breach. The list goes on. However, we refer to it as comprehensive online protection because it’s exactly that. In addition to antivirus, our McAfee+ plans have dozens of features that can protect your devices, identity, and privacy.
For example:
The important thing is this: if you think your Gmail account got hacked, act quickly. You might have much more than just your email linked to that account. Files, photos, and finances might be tied to it as well.
Even if something looks just slightly off, act as if your account got hacked. Log in, change your password, establish two-step verification if you haven’t, and take the other steps mentioned above. Above and beyond your email and all the personal info packed in there, your account can give a hacker access to plenty more.
The post How to Reset Your Gmail Password After Being Hacked appeared first on McAfee Blog.
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