2021 cybersecurity gift guide: Keep your family secure online

We’ve gathered 6 of the best cybersecurity gifts in 2021 to help you choose.

#1 Webcam cover to avoid spying

While he makes a lot of money harvesting your data, Mark Zuckerberg still covers his webcam to protect himself. And so should you. We spend much of our daily lives in front of webcams, so hijacking them makes perfect sense to hackers. If your webcam is left unprotected, a criminal can hack into your device, steal your private info, and watch you watching YouTube videos or even getting undressed if they want to.

• You can block your webcam with tape in a pinch. However, a sliding cover will look neater and will make it easy to use your webcam when you need it.
• A webcam cover is a small gift with high impact. And this small cybersecurity gift will help protect your loved ones from accidentally exposing themselves to the world.

#2 A NordVPN subscription for private and secure browsing

If you hate the idea of being secretly watched, this one is for you. Your every online move is closely monitored by ISPs, advertisers, governments, or hackers. Your online privacy can be easily invaded, but only if you let it.

Giving the gift of online protection is pretty easy, especially when it comes as a user-friendly VPN app.

• A VPN will create a virtually hack-proof encrypted tunnel for your online traffic, making sure no one gets their hands on your private data.
• The NordVPN app also has an integrated Threat Protection Pro feature, which can be purchased separately. It blocks pop-up ads, suspicious and dangerous websites, and reduces the threat of malware.
• With one subscription, NordVPN can be used on up to 10 devices at the same time.
• NordVPN has apps for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and Linux.

#3 Anti-surveillance eyewear

Not only will they make you look good, they’ll also make you (sort of) invisible. Some specialized anti-surveillance glasses simply obscure your eyes, while others emit infrared light to obscure your face and identity from surveillance and facial recognition on CCTV cameras.

• Anti-surveillance eyewear are made of a material that reflects the infrared light found in surveillance cameras, and photos taken with a flash.
• By covering the majority of your face in photos with blinding white light, these shades make you relatively anonymous in pictures and videos shot with a camera flash – perfect for a life in stealth mode.

You can check out our post about anti-surveillance fashion for more ideas.

#4 Privacy screen cover to prevent visual hacking

If the idea of a random stranger watching you check your email doesn’t sound creepy enough, think about someone spying on your private pictures or the banking credentials you type when paying your bills or doing your shopping online.

• A sticky screen protector will help shield the information on your screen from prying eyes.
• It uses a polarized lens to “black out” side views, meaning that if some snoopy stranger tries to take a glance at your screen, they won’t be able to see anything. You’ll be the only one with a full view of the action.

#5 An encrypted USB drive to carry sensitive files

We’ve all been there – losing a USB drive or two. Whether it contains your data backups (you back up regularly, don’t you?) or top-secret business documents, you probably don’t want that information to fall into the wrong hands.

Make it easy for friends to securely store and transport their sensitive data by gifting them a USB flash drive with built-in hardware-based encryption.

• Thanks to either software or hardware encryption, the files stored on an encrypted USB hard drive cannot be accessed.
• Encrypted USB drives come in different capacities, designs, and prices, so you will have no trouble finding the perfect one to give to someone you care about.

#6 A passphrase dice

You’ve heard it a zillion times – creating strong passwords is a must to keep your private data safe from cyber bad guys. Nevertheless, that’s easier said than done, especially when you need to come up with a long, complex, and memorable password for each of your online accounts.

• Gifting someone a six-sided die is a fun way to create powerful, unique passphrases.
• The numbers from 1 to 6 that appear in five rolls of the die are assembled as a five-digit number. That number is then used to look up a word in a word list.
• By generating several words in sequence, a strong passphrase can be made at random.

If you know someone who struggles with remembering passwords, get them a NordPass subscription; a cybersecurity gift anyone would appreciate. It generates virtually unbreakable passwords and remembers them all for you.

P. S. Remember that hackers don’t take the holiday season off. While you’re busy looking for the coolest gifts, they’ll be chasing you with scammy banners and fake e-commerce sites. Follow our safe online shopping tips while you shop this holiday season!