Security

📲 What can someone do with your phone number? Too much

A scammer gets your phone number. What happens next? They can dig up your personal details and even take over your accounts. Here’s how to fight back.

AI deepfake attack ads are flooding the midterms: How to tell what’s real before you vote

Campaigns have spent $80 million on AI-generated ads that put words in mouths and stage scenes that never happened. Most carry no AI label. Here’s how to spot a fake in seconds.

Amazon keeps a secret list of guesses about you. Here’s how to read yours in 60 seconds.

One Amazon shopper bought a pair of butt-scrunch leggings. Amazon’s takeaway: She “has flat buttocks.” She found that little gem in a hidden corner of her account and posted it on Threads. More than 1 million people saw it in less than a day. (I laughed. Then I went straight to my own account.) Here’s […]

153 million driver’s license scans hit the dark web. Your ID may be in the pile, and you never chose the company that had it.

You handed your license to a rental desk or a package counter. A middleman you never heard of kept a copy. Now crooks are selling it. Here’s why watching your SSN alone isn’t enough anymore.

AI facial recognition got a Florida dad wrongfully arrested for a crime 300 miles from home

The suspect was clean-shaven. Robert Dillon had a full beard. Police arrested him anyway. Here’s his story and how to protect yourself.

Incognito mode won’t hide your browsing from your internet provider

Incognito mode keeps your history off the computer, but your internet company still sees every site you visit. Here’s what they collect and how to shut it down.

The scam email opens with a photo of your front door, then asks for $1,950. Here’s how they got your house and how to make it disappear.

Scammers grab your address from a people-search site, pull your house from Google Street View and mail you a threat with your own driveway on it. Nobody hacked your webcam, friend. Here’s what to do and how to cut off their supply.

You tapped an ad for Disney+ and landed in a casino. Over 400 brands are being used as bait.

That Delta ad in your feed may not be Delta, friend. NordVPN’s team found crooks using 400-plus real brands to push people into unlicensed casinos. Here’s the tell.

Google caught malware that uses AI to rewrite itself every hour. Here’s why your free antivirus may never see it coming, and the 10-minute fix.

Google caught malware that asks AI to rewrite its own code every hour, friend. Your free antivirus is checking mugshots against a face that keeps changing. Ten minutes today puts a real watcher on duty.

The defense secretary’s driver’s license was for sale on the dark web. A listener asks: Why bother protecting yours?

Cameron in Houston figures identity protection is a lost cause when even Pete Hegseth’s driver’s license hit the dark web. Kim’s answer: Leaked data is only step one. Here’s where you still win.

‘Kim, what if my password manager gets hacked?’ It’s happened. Here’s who lost, who won and which one you’d be.

Crooks stole a password manager’s vaults in 2022. Here’s what happened next, friend: The strong master passwords held. The weak ones funded a $150 million heist. These safeguards decide which side you land on.

Delete these apps right now: The 2026 list of malicious Android and iPhone apps

Google and Apple pulled a list of more than 75 apps for stealing money, bank logins and more. Removal doesn’t reach your phone. Here’s the list and the 5-minute check.

Check this list of apps caught stealing, spying and billing you. They’re gone from the stores. They’re not gone from your phone.

Twenty-eight of them sold the same scam under one name. Five of them quietly installed a bank account thief. Fifty of them planted a rootkit that survives a factory reset. Google and Apple pulled every one of these apps this year, but removal doesn’t reach the copy on your phone. Here’s the list, the one rule that catches most of them and the five-minute check.

A reader’s brother sent $45,000 to “Katy Perry.” The two scams that empty accounts by preying on love and fear, and how to break the spell.

Americans reported $20.9 billion in scam losses last year. Seniors lost $584 million to romance scams, averaging $38,500 per victim. One reader’s brother is $45,000 deep with a fake pop star. The fix isn’t arguing. It’s a two-minute video call test and knowing the blackmail email is usually a bluff.

Comcast turned millions of routers into motion sensors this month. Here’s the off switch.

Comcast made Wi-Fi motion sensing a headline feature on millions of Xfinity gateways. It reads the ripples your body makes in the signal, through walls, no camera. Here’s the five-minute check, friend.

On social media, he saw a woman he’d never met and decided to stalk her. This is becoming a trend.

Two arrests, two weeks, two states. Neither man had met the woman he’s accused of stalking. Each saw her on social media and tracked her down. Here’s how strangers do that and how to stop it.

Google scams have four new faces. Here’s the checklist that beats all of them.

A Google Form, a calendar invite, a “Google Security” call, an AI Overview phone number. Four scams wear Google’s logo, friend, but the company insists it will never call you about security

The tiny URL mistake that could send your utility payment to scammers

Fake utility payment websites are getting harder to spot. Learn the one place to check before you enter your credit card, plus the warning signs that can save you from a costly mistake.

I have passkeys on Google and my bank. Do I still need a password manager?

Paul in Indiana set up passkeys and wonders why he still needs a password manager. Fair question. Passkeys cover maybe a dozen accounts. The other 150 are still running on “Fluffy2019!” Here’s how the two work together and the one move that ends password chaos for good.

The man who built America’s biggest camera network reportedly hides from it. Can Flock survive?

Flock’s cameras scan more than 20 billion license plates a month, and they’ve found kidnapped kids and closed murder cases. They’ve also tracked police officers’ ex-girlfriends, shown up in a Virginia woman’s front yard uninvited and nearly ended up on 350,000 Ubers. Now, 30-plus cities have pulled the plug, the company is scrambling to add rules and its own CEO reportedly keeps his plates out of the system. Here’s the whole story, plus the free map that shows every camera near you.