Cyberattacks used to focus on corrupting your files and crashing your computer. Now, many cybercriminals look beyond just accessing your devices to stealing your personal data. They’re hunting for things like your name, email address, phone number and especially your financial information to use against you in many ways, from creating personalized scams to stealing your identity. These attacks can result in lost funds, damage to your credit or reputation and significant stress as you attempt to resolve the situation.
Understanding how this data is stolen — from social engineering scams to adversary-in-the-middle attacks — is essential if you want to safely navigate the web. We’ll walk you through today’s digital threat landscape and how to protect your data from various cyberattacks.
Bad actors now try to steal your data, not just crash your computer
Crashing your computer might give you a bad day (or a bad week), but it’s not necessarily profitable for cybercriminals. Stealing your data, however, allows cybercriminals to profit in various ways, such as:
- Creating personalized scams to con you into giving more personal information or sending money
- Sending fake transfers or making false purchases using your bank accounts or credit cards
- Creating fraudulent bank accounts or taking out fraudulent loans in your name
- Selling your data on the dark web
These ventures can net cybercriminals thousands of dollars for every victim they swindle out of their data. According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, cyber-related crimes duped Americans out of around $21 billion in 2025 alone. You, meanwhile, lose not only the money they steal but the time and energy required to recover your funds and accounts — a process that can take anywhere from a few days to multiple years, depending on the type of fraud. Additionally, these attacks can result in damage to your reputation, mental health and physical health.
Some of the ways cybercriminals steal your data are social engineering scams, ransomware and adversary-in-the-middle attacks. You may be the direct target, or a bad actor may try to cause a data breach for an organization to get information about you and other individuals in bulk.
Social engineering schemes
Social engineering schemes use human psychology to convince you to give away personal information such as your Social Security number or credit card details. For example, a scammer might impersonate your bank and say your account is at risk, using fear to get information they can use to steal your identity. Social engineering scams are particularly dangerous in the age of AI, which makes it easy to impersonate someone’s writing style or even duplicate their voice.
Ransomware
Ransomware is malware that encrypts important files so you can’t access your data — sometimes locking you out of your device entirely — then demands payment in exchange for decrypting it. Paying up doesn’t always secure your data, though; cybercriminals may refuse to decrypt your data or duplicate it to facilitate further cyberattacks. Moreover, once you’ve paid, cybercriminals may identify you as an easy mark for future ransomware attacks.
Adversary-in-the-middle attacks
Adversary-in-the-middle attacks involve malicious actors — whether people, bots or malware — eavesdropping on communications between two or more parties communicating electronically, such as a user and an app or website. This lets them intercept sensitive data like your name, email address and financial information. They may also manipulate data sent through these communications to encourage users to share more sensitive information.
Attacks on organizations
Cybercriminals often target corporate or institutional databases to maximize the amount of data they can access. This can be done by attacking the institution’s systems, such as infiltrating an employee’s account to exploit vulnerabilities in an organization’s security. The Identity Theft Resource Center tracked 3,322 data breaches in 2025, making this a significant threat to be aware of.
Your data is collected outside of malicious attacks, too
Every website you visit, and most software you use, collects information about you, often using a variety of tools:
- Cookies to track how you interact with websites. Some are used to improve user experience, like cookies that remember your login information on sites you visit often, while others are used for more insidious purposes, like targeted advertising.
- Ad trackers such as tracking pixels that collect data about how you access and interact with content, sending it to the third-party company that created the tracker. Facebook Pixel is among the most well-known of these trackers, with active installs on almost five million websites.
- Scrapers that rapidly scour numerous websites for personal information, often for the purpose of placing it on data broker and people-finder sites. This data can then be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, from companies doing market research to malicious actors hoping to trap you in personalized scams.
These trackers aren’t necessarily malicious, but they do create data points that can be targeted by cybercriminals and used against you.
How to protect your data
The best way to keep your data safe is to proactively minimize the opportunities for it to be leaked. There are many ways to do this, from using tools like high-quality antivirus software and a VPN to deleting old accounts. I recommend a multilayered approach that uses some or all of the following strategies:
- Use antivirus software. You can use the software built into your device or, if you want more customization options for your malware coverage, a third-party antivirus program — there are even great free antivirus apps.
- Use a password manager. A password manager helps you generate and store strong passwords so you don’t have to rely on your memory to keep track of them all.
- Switch to using passkeys for important accounts. Passkeys require a connection between a legitimate website and your device, making them safer than traditional passwords.
- Get a VPN. A virtual private network or VPN masks your public IP address by running your traffic through an encrypted server, making it difficult for websites to collect browsing data about you, and for online snoops like internet providers to view your browsing activity.
- Install secure browsing tools. Browser security extensions and safe browsers block ad trackers, preventing companies from collecting your data. Some also block ads and protect you from malicious websites.
- Invest in identity monitoring and protection. Identity theft protection services can alert you to data breaches, help you address them and reimburse you for money lost due to identity theft.
- Delete unused accounts. This minimizes the pool of personally identifiable data, like your name and address, that can be leaked in a data breach. You can do this quickly with McAfee’s online account cleanup tool.
- Cancel unused subscriptions. Like deleting unused accounts, this reduces the number of places where your personal data can be exposed in data breaches. Additionally, canceling unused subscriptions can reduce inbox clutter and financial strain.
Most of all, remember that protecting your data is an ongoing process. You’ll need to continuously use the tools listed above and pay close attention to what you sign up for — and what you post — online to keep your digital footprint small.
Your data is under threat, but it can be protected
Everything you do online puts more data about you into the world, creating a veritable gold mine for cybercriminals who want to sell your data on the dark web, create personalized scams or steal your identity. You don’t need to blow up your internet connection to stay safe, though. Educating yourself about potential threats, using tools like antivirus software and a password manager and being cautious about where you share your information can keep you safe from many digital threats.
For more, learn what to do if you’ve been scammed.
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