🚨 Hackers stole the password vaults

🤯 WOW! In 2022, crooks stole a password manager’s customer vaults. The vaults with strong master passwords were never cracked. The weak ones? Federal investigators tied them to a $150 million crypto heist.

The Short Version: The lock decides everything, and you control the lock. A few simple steps put you on the winning side. See below.

📖 Read time: 2.5 minutes

Frank, I love this question, because we don’t have to guess at the answer. It already happened.

In 2022, crooks broke into LastPass and stole customer vaults. The nightmare scenario, right? What they carried out the door were encrypted blobs. Digital bricks. That’s the part the scary headlines skip.

A password manager scrambles your vault on your device before it ever uploads, and the only key is your master password, which never leaves your head.

So the thieves went home and started guessing. Millions of tries per second, offline, no lockouts. The results tell you everything. Vaults locked with long, unique master passwords? Never opened.

The average person has 168 passwords, about 87 of which guard something that touches money. Nobody’s brain holds 168 of anything. 

That’s the whole case for a password manager in one number. Here’s how to land in the group that walks away bored:

Straight talk: No tool is a force field. If you type your master password into a phishing site, no vault can save you. But “my password manager got hacked” is not an unknown. It has a documented ending, and the prepared people won.

Putting all your eggs in one basket works as long as you make that basket titanium. Here’s how.

Because the truly risky password manager is the sticky note on your monitor.

🎯 Send this to someone who keeps their passwords in a Notes app named “Passwords.”

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🕶 Making a spectacle of you: Meta’s smart glasses can turn you into internet content before you know a camera is rolling. One woman says a man secretly filmed her through his AI-powered glasses and uploaded the video, which went viral. The supposed warning is a tiny light on the glasses’ frame, but CBS found that once recording starts, covering the light doesn’t stop it. I hate how the “please don’t record me” responsibility falls on the person being recorded, not the creep.

Prime suspect: The FTC and 20 state attorneys general sued Amazon claiming it secretly raised the minimum price advertisers had to pay in its ad auctions and pocketed tens of billions over seven years. Businesses thought they were bidding fair and square. Regulators say the floor kept moving. And when ad costs go up, guess whose cart gets more expensive? It’s the FTC’s third big swing at Amazon, right on the heels of a $2.5 billion settlement over allegedly deceptive Prime practices. The everything store really does sell everything. Including courtroom drama.

🪤 Shame and blackmail: Every parent needs to know about this sextortion case. Two Nigerian men were extradited to the U.S. on charges of being involved in schemes linked to the deaths of two American teens. They face up to life in prison. Kids panic, pay and hide, or worse because they expect punishment. Tonight’s talk with your kids: You’re never in trouble for coming to me. Don’t pay, don’t reply, save everything, report to the FBI at report.cybertip.org.

Checks without the pricks: The FDA cleared the first continuous wearable sensor to measure blood sugar and ketones simultaneously. That means finger pricks get replaced with hands-off readings. It could flag trouble earlier and even prevent an ER trip. The relief is real, assuming the price and insurance paperwork don’t require their own medical team.

🚀 Higher education, literally: Your rocket-crazy kid may have a federal career path. President Trump signed an executive order creating a college-level U.S. Space Academy to train engineers, scientists and astronauts for the Space Force and NASA, as well as private companies. Location, opening date and funding: TBD. A presidential commission has about 120 days to submit recommendations. Those application essays are going to be astronomical. Got a space-obsessed preteen or teen? This is one to watch.

That free school laptop isn’t really free. It can log activity after school hours. On your own Wi-Fi. Plus, we break down cheap ways to track your kids at school. Including putting AirTags in their shoes.

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🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: That phone in your hand is already counting your steps, no smartwatch needed. On iPhone, open Health > Summary > Steps. On Android, check your Health or Fitness app > Daily activity or Steps. Pin the step count to your home screen. I like seeing the number there. It guilts me into walking more. 😅

🏡 Your home can be stolen while you sleep: No gun. No locksmith. A scammer forges your deed at the county recorder’s office, and legally, your house belongs to them. You won’t find out until it’s too late. Home title fraud is exploding, and reversing it takes an average of 12 months of lawyers and court dates. I use Home Title Lock to monitor my title 24/7. Get your free Title History Report and see every document ever filed against your property. Start your free 14-day trial now.*

Windows 11’s optional update is a mess: KB5120998 is apparently resetting custom cursors to a big white Windows 98-style pointer, turning wallpapers black and even making text look blurry for some people. I’d skip this one. Already installed it? Go to Settings > Windows Update > Update history > Uninstall updates > KB5120998 > Uninstall, then restart your PC.

😨 Check your Chrome extensions: 18 were caught carrying malware that could steal passwords, browser data and crypto. The list included QuickLens - Search Screen with Google Lens, Password Protect PDF and more. They’re gone from the Chrome Web Store, but if you have one installed, remove it and change your passwords ASAP.

A Mac shortcut you should know: Move your cursor into a screen corner, and boom, your Mac will trigger an action instantly. Maybe top right locks the screen, while top left opens Notification Center. 🤔 Go to System Settings > Desktop & Dock, scroll to the bottom, then click Hot Corners and pick what each corner does. Why do Macs run hotter than PCs? Because they don’t have Windows.

💸 See what’s draining your wallet: Paste last month’s transactions into a chatbot. Just the merchant names and amounts. Ask it to act like a financial analyst, sort everything into categories and flag recurring charges. Then ask what those habits cost you over a year. That’s when the little coffees and subscriptions start looking very expensive. More tips like this on my official website. 😉

Turns out drones are good for more than delivering burritos and making your neighbor call the police. When I read this story, I knew you’d want to hear it. 

After a man in his 60s collapsed from cardiac arrest in Sweden, an Everdrone took off just 15 seconds after the emergency call. Three-ish minutes later, it lowered a defibrillator to the scene, several minutes ahead of the typical ambulance response. That can make all the difference. 

A stranger grabbed the lifesaving device, got instructions from dispatch and shocked the man’s heart back into rhythm. He survived.

Maybe save the robot uprising jokes for tomorrow.

Check it out here.

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🎓 What you learned today: A password manager hack is survivable with a strong master password, Meta smart glasses are making consent harder in public, sextortion is a must-have talk with kids, diabetes wearables can track glucose and ketones together, and the U.S. Space Academy could give rocket kids a new path. Not bad for one email. Lithium batteries have caused dozens of plane smoke-and-fire incidents this year. Tomorrow, I’ll explain what not to pack, what warning signs to watch for and the FAA rule too many travelers miss.

⚡ The answer: B) A turbine-blade factory. What’s a gas turbine? Think of a jet engine that gave up travel and settled down to make electricity. It burns natural gas, spins a shaft, that shaft spins a generator, and boom: power for the server racks teaching chatbots to sound confident.

Yep, AI data centers are so power-hungry they’re skipping the grid and building their own gas power plants, and every turbine maker on Earth is sold out through 2030. So SpaceX is casting its own blades.

The catch: xAI faces accusations of running Memphis turbines without full permits, and a Virginia study said a single eight-turbine site could affect the health of millions of neighbors. 

💨 What’s a wind turbine’s favorite color? Blew!

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.

Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, WYZE, Phomemo, Everdrone

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