Alaina Yee

2 days ago | pcworld.com | Alaina Yee

I have bad news for everyone with weak passwords. A hacker can guess your laziest random passwords in the same amount of time it takes to watch a movie. It turns out when you put the most brutally fast consumer graphics card on the task of, uh, brute-forcing 8-character passwords, it can crack a numbers-only string in 3 hours. Such is the finding of Hive Systems, a cybersecurity firm based in Virginia, as part of the research that went into its 2025 password table.

2 days ago | pcworld.com | Alaina Yee

Crime does pay. It’s the motivator behind ransomware and extortion scams and why the PowerSchool breach (in which data for millions of students was lost to a hacker) is now dragging out further. Late last week, affected school districts in locations like Toronto and North Carolina began sharing reports of new extortion demands. No one is spending money, and you should take the same approach to your kids’ data. Why? If you fork over cash once, you’ll likely have to keep shelling out.

6 days ago | pcworld.com | Alaina Yee

Your PC is secure the first time you start up Windows—but it doesn’t always stay that way. You can make mistakes that break that protection. Cybersecurity experts see a lot, and as a result, they know exactly how people get themselves in trouble. When I spoke with folks from Microsoft at this year’s RSAC Conference (formerly known as RSA), they had quick answers for what the biggest issues are.

1 week ago | pcworld.com | Alaina Yee

The RSAC Conference is a unique opportunity for speaking with worldwide cybersecurity experts. Many folks are so deep in the trenches that they casually toss out great tips whenever you chat with them. A great example: This acronym I picked up from Kelly Bissell, corporate vice president of fraud within Microsoft’s Security division. It focuses on how to avoid job scams—that is, phony listings and opportunities that might cross your path.

1 week ago | pcworld.com | Alaina Yee

“Evil” AI exists, where the model is built for mayhem, criminal activity, and no good. But legitimate AI tools can be corrupted, too. Hackers can feed data to the AI that poisons it—the goal is to influence the AI’s dataset and change its output. Perhaps an attacker wants a more discreet outcome, like introducing biases. Or perhaps instead malicious results are wanted, like dangerous inaccuracies or suggestions. AI is just a tool—it doesn’t know if it’s being used for positive or negative benefit.