Cybersecurity and Privacy Research Lab

Cookies keep us logged in and ensure our shopping carts remain filled while we decide what to buy. But they can also lead to identity theft, financial loss, and phishing attacks. Researchers analyzed 54 billion cookies that are for sale on the dark web to find out how they were stolen, what information they contain, and how criminals can use it for other cyberattacks.

Your Android and iOS apps need phone permissions to function — but how much data is too much? We reviewed over a hundred popular apps around the world to see just how much they really want (and need) to know about you.

Health apps can help us achieve peace of mind and restore our physical health. But what role does health technology play in our digital well-being? We surveyed 12,726 users worldwide to examine the use of health management apps and the unnoticed trade-off happening in the background.

Thousands of stolen credit cards are bought and sold every day. To understand the risks posed by credit card theft, we analyzed a dataset of 6 million credit cards available on major dark web marketplaces — just the tip of the iceberg of credit card theft worldwide.

Digital bots are becoming increasingly common. They operate in fields such as customer service, search engine optimization, and entertainment. Yet not all bots may serve good intentions – many of them can be malicious.

Experts have analyzed a dark web marketplace to reveal what it can tell us about online cybersecurity risks. Our case study in collaboration with independent third-party researchers’ work may help you stay safer online and off.

Our analysis uses data provided by independent researchers to see just how widespread payment card data theft can be. Find out how thieves can get card details without ever even stealing them.

Researchers looked into the most popular searches that include the word “hack” on Google. In total, they have analyzed almost 2M (1,983,741) searches from 50 countries, both in English and the local language. Seventy percent of them (1,387,020) included Meta’s social media platforms.

Most internet users have some data on the internet that they wish they could delete. However, a new NordVPN study shows that many people don’t know how to limit their online exposure. So what does the data reveal? And how can people take back control of their digital lives?

Worried your social media accounts might get hacked? You’re not alone. According to a new NordVPN study, most Americans fear falling victim to social media hacking. So, should you be losing sleep over being hacked?

This Prime Day, millions of Amazon users are at risk of being scammed. According to new data from NordVPN, most online consumers are unable to recognize Amazon fraud — which is great news for hackers and cybercriminals and bad news for everybody else.

In 2021, we asked 1,022 people in the US over the age of 18 which apps, browsers, and tech brands they trusted the most as part of a nationwide survey on brand privacy. The results were depressingly predictable, proving the assumption that popularity means safety.

Cancelled flights? These holidaymakers are more worried they’ll get hacked abroad. Over 85% of people in the US are scared of using public Wi-Fi on holiday. With nearly half of us going on vacation this summer, hackers have fresh targets.

Have you ever got to the bathroom, only to realize – in horror – that you don’t have your phone? You’re not the only one who needs distraction in the bathroom. Most of us take our phones with us when answering nature’s call, according to NordVPN research.

The hype around NFTs is very real, as exhibited by the results of our survey. We found that 47% of US respondents had some knowledge or awareness of this technology, and around half of that group had actually bought, sold or invested in NFTs previously.

NordVPN study has found 7 in 10 Americans would have concerns about the security of purchases made with cryptocurrency. They expressed unease about the prospect of cryptocurrencies becoming the standard for online purchases, along with a range of related worries.

Eighty-seven percent of people surveyed are concerned about how the metaverse could affect their privacy. They think it might be easy for hackers to impersonate others (50%), users’ identities won’t be legally protected (47%), and they will be forced to share even more of their private data, which can be later abused (45%).

Our research team asked people what they would erase from the internet if given a chance. From intimate messages to streaming platforms — people want to delete many things. Find out what they are.

We surveyed 7800 people to find out how they feel about online tracking. Spoiler alert: 80% are worried about it. Find out what people from different countries think about online privacy risks.

You might know that your lifestyle can impact your cybersecurity. But have you ever thought how much? Six people shared their real browsing data with our researchers. They collected 3,958 cookies in just two days. Learn what that means to people’s cybersecurity and what you can do to minimize cookies in your daily browsing.

We collected survey data of over 7,000 participants to figure out why only around 25% of people secure their IoT devices. Why didn’t users take precautions when introducing a new IoT device to their homes? Whose responsibility is it to secure these devices?

Many democratic governments want to implement encryption backdoors. They claim that criminals hide behind encryption to protect themselves from persecution. While the need for effective law enforcement is understandable, there is no such thing as a secure backdoor. Instead, it’s a deliberate vulnerability that anyone can discover.

What risks do you face when you allow others to use your devices? Do your family members monitor your actions online? How safe is your private data when you use a work laptop at home? Learn why your personal devices are not as personal as you may think.

We launched the National Privacy Test to give internet users a chance to assess their cybersec knowledge and spot areas for improvement. In the test report, users can find country rankings by score as well as average scores in different categories and demographics.

We analyzed the top 4 parental monitoring apps, their popularity trends, how they work, and what problems the increased usage of these apps might create.

Regular internet users have started looking for the best ways to hack something. We analyzed top Google search results to find which countries have the most wannabe hackers and what (or who) they targeted the most.

What restricted content do internet users from different countries want to unblock the most? Government censorship, copyright laws, and local restrictions force people to look for a workaround – learn what online platforms they wanted to unblock most often.

We collected and analyzed data from 50 countries to determine their vulnerability to cybercrime. We wanted to find out what factors put internet users at greater cyber risk and how likely people from different parts of the world are to become victims of cybercrime.