Cyber criminals pay extra attention to accounts tied to money.
A 2026 FBI study found that over 12,400 of those victims lost more than $100,000 each, and the average reported loss across elder fraud victims that year was $38,500. Here are a few habits to fine-tune your digital security this month:
🔐 Turn on multi-factor authentication everywhere it's offered. Yes, it’s annoying, but according to a 2026 CISA report, using it makes an account roughly 99 percent less likely to be broken into. It only takes a minute to set up.
🔐 Give every account its own password. Reusing one password means one leaked login unlocks everything else. A password manager handles this without requiring you to remember dozens of them.
🔐 When you go to the dentist, put a reminder on your calendar to also change your passwords. Changing passwords often makes your accounts just that much harder to reach.
🔐 Pause before clicking. Phishing remains the most commonly reported cybercrime in the country, more than any other category the FBI tracks.
🔐 Check statements regularly, and turn on account alerts. Catching something small and wrong early is a lot easier to unwind than catching something large and wrong months later.
🔐 Consider freezing your credit if you're not actively applying for new credit or loans. This takes 15 minutes, one time.
None of this requires becoming a security expert. Pick the one or two that you've been putting off, and do it this week.