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Earlier this month, security guru Troy Hunt added a staggering two billion unique email addresses and 1.3 billion unique passwords to his Have I Been Pwned and Pwned Passwords databases. Aggregated by Synthient, the data comes from multiple credential stuffing sources shared by threat actors, as well as data stolen directly from individuals through infostealer malware. The number of people affected is so massive that the rollout of notifications went out in waves to Have I Been Pwned subscribers. (This service is free—enter your email address into the HIBP search field, and then click on the Notify Me button that appears before any results.) The data also has particular characteristics that stood out to me. (You can read more about them in Hunt’s blog post.) Between these details and the questions I’ve fielded about what to do next, I’ve changed my advice on the “right” moves for good online security. Here’s what I now recommend. Different email addresses for every account Using the same email address to log into each of your accounts makes a hacker’s job easier. They can plug that info into a website along with any password they think (or know) you’ve used. This credential stuffing attack often works because people reuse passwords. So an easy way to avoid getting tripped up this way: Use a different email address for every account. In the old days, you had to create an actual separate account each time you needed a new email address. Not anymore. You can create and manage masked emails for all your online accounts so vendors don’t see your actual email address. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Nowadays, you can use email aliases (aka “email masks” or “masked email”) for the same purpose. To other people, it will seem like you have a different email address across your accounts. Meanwhile, you can receive messages all in one place (if you so choose). An alias forwards your emails wherever you want them to go.  The most basic version of an email alias is the ability to add extra text to the end of your email handle (e.g., samplemail+extratext@domain.com). The format is the plus sign (+) and then whatever string of letters and numbers you want to add. Gmail and Proton Mail are two email services that support this style of email alias. For added privacy, you can use dedicated email masks to completely hide your true email address. For example, you receive email at samplemail@domain.com, but you’d prefer it to keep that info private. So you use the built-in masked email feature provided by your email service (if applicable) or you sign up for an independent service to generate random email aliases like sample.word0000@domain.com or 19xij3900x9@domain2.com. Fastmail (a paid email service) includes masked email as a feature.PCWorld Proton Mail, Fastmail, and Apple’s iCloud Mail are all examples of email services that include email masks. (Proton Mail and iCloud Mail call them “hide-my-email” aliases.) You can also sign up for Mozilla Relay, SimpleLogin, or another email masking service if you already have an email address elsewhere that you’d rather keep using. A basic alias that relies on a +extratext style addition to your email address helps to at least keep each login harder to guess. (Add text to your email address that isn’t obvious or guessable based on the website info. For example, avoid +target if you’re on Target.com.) But having both security and privacy is the better call these days—it makes it harder for someone to build a profile of you to create personalized, more effective phishing emails and text messages. So a truly anonymous email alias service is the better way to go. Update your old passwords In Troy Hunt’s writeup about importing the password data, more than one person who responded to his inquiry estimated the age of their compromised passwords falling between 10 to 20 years old. Among a couple of the hinted characteristics of these ancient credentials: They weren’t long, for starters—about eight characters. And they included variations that barely counted as such. (One person confirmed that a compromised password only tacked on two extra exclamation marks (oof) to the end of another compromised password.) When hashed with bcrypt 10, this is how long it can take for an “amateur” hacker to use a handful of RTX 5090 GPUs to figure out passwords. (Passwords with weaker protection will crack faster.)Hive Systems What makes for a good password has changed a lot in the past decade, and especially so in the past two decades. If you have old ones you have never updated, it’s time to revisit them. Shorter passwords are easy to crack now, thanks to improvements in computational performance. And what we considered random and strong in 2005 (e.g., p@$$word!) isn’t at all now. Plus, with website breaches happening left and right as of late, you could have a pretty decently random password with the magic combination of one lowercase, one uppercase, a number, and a special character—but it could still be compromised because you’ve used only weak variations of it. (Or worse, have been outright reusing it.) Even if you’re not using old accounts anymore, don’t leave them weakly protected with a crappy password. You may have other information like addresses, phone numbers, and other data that can be stolen and used for targeted phishing attacks. Clean up (or delete) old accounts Speaking of stealable personal information—if you have accounts you use infrequently, clear out details that don’t need to stay on file. Even if your password’s never stolen, the data could still leak if the website owner is a victim of hackers. A good password manager will securely store more than just passwords and passkeys. You can keep addresses and credit card info on file, too.Jared Newman / Foundry Credit card info is the first thing I delete on shopping accounts. (Better to save that in your password manager, if you want the convenience of autofill.) But you can wipe your home address, phone number, and other details, too, to make it harder for a hacker to figure out your habits and guess at the smartest way to trick you out of your money (or valuable info that would lead them to your money). Not planning to ever use the account again? Or so infrequently that it wouldn’t matter if you pay for your items as a guest? Just delete the whole thing. Switch to passkeys I beat this drum hard these days, and for good reason. A hacker can find out your email address and your old passwords, sure. But if you switch your primary login method to a passkey, that won’t do them any good. Passkeys work differently than passwords. They can’t be stolen directly or used remotely by unauthorized devices. (A hacker could break into the account where you store passkeys, if you keep them in a cloud-based service, but that’s different.) They’re also tied to the website they were created for. On PC, Windows will guide the process for saving passkeys if you don’t have a third-party password manager installed.PCWorld So a credential stuffing attack won’t work on a passkey-guarded account. And if you ever accidentally fall for a phishing link, it won’t work on the phony site. Some websites don’t allow passkey-only login, so for those, update your password to something long, unique, and random and then save it in your password manager as a backup method for log in. (Enable two-factor authentication, too.) But otherwise, passkeys are the way to go. You don’t have to think about them once they’re set up. They just work. Read...

Valve just announced the Steam Machine, a living room PC/console to compete with the Xbox and PlayStation. But Valve already has a living room gaming station! It’s called the Steam Deck and all you need is a dock—you know, just like a Nintendo Switch. I love my Steam Deck, but I’d never hooked it up to my TV before… so I bought a dock, gave it a go, and learned a lot. Turns out, it’s pretty easy to turn a Steam Deck into a living room game console. Here’s how to do it yourself and what you need to know before you do. There are some definite “gotchas” you need to watch out for! Your Steam Deck just needs a dock Unlike the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck doesn’t come with a dock. But once you add a dock? You get a Switch-style experience. I purchased Valve’s official Steam Deck Docking Station for $79 and it works well. That price does feel a little high, though, and plenty of gamers have great experiences with less expensive docks. For example, Anker has a $30 Steam Deck Dock (which I personally haven’t used, but my experience with Anker hardware has been solid). My Steam Deck docked to my Steam Deck Dock, doc.Chris Hoffman / Foundry Third-party docks generally don’t ship with power adapters while the Steam Deck Dock does ship with one, so it’s a better deal than it may seem at first glance. Then again, your Steam Deck already came with its own power adapter that you can use for the Steam Deck Dock, so you may not need another one anyway. Simply plug the dock into a power outlet, connect it to your TV via HDMI cable, and you’re ready to go! Now all you have to do is set your Steam Deck in the dock, then connect the little USB-C cable from the dock to the port on top of your Steam Deck. Done! You’ll need some peripherals, too With your Steam Deck properly docked, now you just need to connect a few peripherals. A modern Xbox Controller works well, but it connects via Bluetooth and I’ve seen some chatter about latency with Xbox controllers. Still, mine worked well for me. We have a full guide to cutting through the BS when buying gaming controllers for PC. Chris Hoffman / Foundry You can also wirelessly connect Bluetooth keyboards and mice with ease in the same way. That said, Steam Deck docks have USB ports that allow you to connect wired controllers, keyboards, and mice. If Bluetooth seems flakey but you don’t like the wired option, you can also opt for wireless USB receivers. Not all peripherals support this option, but most do. If it came with a little USB dongle, you just have to plug it in and switch the device to wireless dongle mode. Put your TV in Game Mode If you encounter input latency—noticeable lag when you press buttons resulting in delayed actions on screen—go into your TV’s picture settings and put it into “Game Mode.” This reduces input latency and is essential for a good gaming experience on many TVs. Samsung Tweak the display resolution The Steam Deck’s native resolution is 1280×800, but it can output at higher resolutions. I was able to get it up to 4K on my TV, though it looked pretty good at 1080p as well. Note, however, that a higher resolution puts a bigger strain on the Steam Deck, especially with higher-end triple-A games. The Steam Deck is best with lighter games. There’s another big problem: SteamOS uses a display system called Gamescope to manage resolutions, and it can lock games to resolutions that make sense in the native handheld mode but not in docked mode. You can tweak it, but it’s not intuitive. When a game refuses to run at higher resolutions, here’s what I do: I go into Settings > Display and turned off automatic resolution for the external display. This is just in case. For the game itself, I select Properties > General > Override resolution and enter the TV’s target resolution. I launch the game, go into its settings, and chose the higher resolution that’s available. This works with most games, bringing them up from a pixelated low resolution to a surprisingly sharp experience. Game streaming might be inconsistent The Steam Deck works well as a living room console. Firing up Hades and playing it with an Xbox Controller on my couch is great! And I’m happy I can play the games I already own without having to, say, buy a Nintendo Switch 2 and re-purchase titles on the Nintendo eShop. But the Steam Deck’s game streaming performance is inconsistent. I streamed Doom: The Dark Ages from my Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080-powered PC and it did surprisingly well on the Steam Deck when handheld. But with the Steam Deck docked and using a Bluetooth-enabled Xbox controller? The Wi-Fi apparently interfered with the Bluetooth connection, causing input to be stuttery. Chris Hoffman / Foundry Bluetooth issues aside, not every game streamed as well as Doom. I found less-demanding games often didn’t stream well at all. It seems dependent on the game’s engine and whether it’s using Vulkan, DirectX 12, DirectX 11, and so on—there are so many variables! You’ll have a better, more consistent experience playing games right on the Deck’s hardware than streaming them to the Deck. I also own one of Valve’s discontinued Steam Link boxes designed for streaming games from a desktop PC to a TV, and the game streaming experience wasn’t great for that either. Steam has always been inconsistent for me in this area, so I’ve always preferred playing games locally than streaming them over the network. What if you want to stream? Instead of Steam’s built-in streaming support, use Nvidia GeForce Now to stream games from Nvidia’s servers to your Steam Deck. I’ve had more consistent results with Nvidia GeForce Now over the years than streaming from my own PC. A docked Steam Deck is fun and easy… but I want even more! The Steam Deck is great in docked mode, but it has real drawbacks. Compared to a Nintendo Switch, there’s a lot more fiddling with resolution settings. Things that should ideally “just work”? Well, they don’t. The Steam Deck works well in handheld mode, but the experience with an external display isn’t as polished. The Steam Deck is also clearly designed to be used in hand. In theory, it can deliver high-end gaming power to your TV by streaming games from your gaming PC. In reality, it’s flakey. I wouldn’t count on a reliable streaming experience with every game in your Steam library. If anything, using the Steam Deck in docked mode makes me realize how much I want a powerful SteamOS console-style experience. I like playing PC games in my living room, but I’m not a fan of the Windows desktop experience on my TV. Clicking through OneDrive promos and Microsoft Edge ads on my 4K TV is not my idea of a chill time. SteamOS has a great TV interface. If the resolution configuration was more seamless, it would be excellent. The Steam Deck just needs more powerful hardware to stand up to modern Xboxes and PlayStations in the living room—and that’s why I’m looking forward to the new Steam Machine. But until it comes, I’m happy enough to use my docked Steam Deck as a makeshift SteamOS console. Read...

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TL;DR: Sterling Stock Picker provides beginners and seasoned investors with AI-powered guidance, personalized stock recommendations, and a done-for-you portfolio builder — now available for just $55.19 for lifetime access. Navigating the stock market can feel a bit like trying to read a foreign language while riding a rollercoaster. You want to invest smarter, but between jargon, volatility, and charts that look like EKGs, it’s easy to stick with “maybe later.” That’s exactly why Sterling Stock Picker exists — and why grabbing lifetime access for $55.19 (MSRP $486) with code STOCKS20 is such an appealing shortcut into confident investing. This platform is designed for real people, not Wall Street prodigies. It cuts through the overwhelm by analyzing companies for you, scoring them with its North Star technology, and giving you clear buy/hold/sell indicators. A standout feature is Finley, your always-awake AI financial coach (powered by OpenAI). Finley breaks down complex ideas in plain English, explains risk levels, helps evaluate stocks, and even guides your long-term strategy. SSP also comes with a done-for-you portfolio builder, personalized stock recommendations based on your risk tolerance, sector insights, and “Rocket Stocks” with huge growth potential. Add in beginner-friendly explanations and a community chat forum, and you’ve got a tool that supports you no matter where you are in your investing journey. Don’t miss lifetime access to Sterling Stock Picker for just $55.19 (MSRP $486) with code STOCKS20. Sterling Stock Picker: Lifetime SubscriptionSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

TL;DR: Cancel your Microsoft 365 subscription and get a Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business lifetime license for $169.97 (MSRP $249.99)—just a one-time payment. The recurring cost of Microsoft 365 adds up fast—especially when all you need are the essential Office apps. A more budget-friendly option is right here: Microsoft Office 2024, with permanent access to many of the same apps. And a lifetime license is at the lowest price we’ve ever seen for a limited time. The suite includes: Word Excel PowerPoint Outlook Each app installs directly on your Mac or PC, and then there are no recurring costs of any kind. These are the recent versions of these apps, too, with updated interfaces, faster performance, and built-in AI tools like Word’s Smart Compose for predictive text, Excel’s AI Data Insights for automatic trend analysis and chart suggestions, and PowerPoint’s Designer for layout and design recommendations. Don’t miss this all-time low price! Download Microsoft Office 2024 for PC or Mac while it’s $169.97 (MSRP $249.99). No coupon is needed. Microsoft Office 2024 Home & Business for Mac or PC Lifetime LicenseSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change. Read...

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