Malware & Data Breaches

Most people will never be "hacked" in the movie sense — but they may well have a password stolen by malware or exposed in a company data breach. This section explains the threats that actually reach ordinary users: infostealer malware that grabs saved passwords, session cookies and crypto-wallet data, and the large breaches that leak credentials by the million.

The guides are explainers, not exploit manuals. We describe how an infostealer ends up on a device, why a stolen browser session can bypass even MFA, and what credential stuffing means when you reuse passwords. Then we get practical: how to check whether your email or password has appeared in a breach, how to rotate passwords, sign out active sessions and turn on MFA or passkeys.

We stay honest about limits — a VPN will not stop an infostealer, and we say so. The real defences here are unique passwords, a password manager, phishing-resistant MFA and quick action after an incident, drawing on reports from sources like Mandiant, ENISA and Verizon's DBIR.