Salus
, everything that can be hacked will be.Let’s walk through the vulnerabilities in an ordinary lifestyle.
The front door
The entrance of your abode quite naturally displays your address. A package on the porch shares your name.
Identity
Your name, address, phone number, email, age, birth date, and list of relatives are surprisingly available across the internet. Dedicated websites will compile and sell your data for a few dollars. It is shockingly simple for bad actors to obtain your details.
The living room
Next to the reading chair is a landline (yes, your grandparents still have one!). Keys and a wallet sit on the shelf. A smart speaker and robot vacuum quietly hum in the background.
Family
You have at least one family member who isn't tech savvy. A scammer's AI gives them a call. The voice on the line sounds like its yours, except it's not. AI has cloned your voice from the videos you shared on socials. And as luck would have it, those same feeds show the trip your currently on. The AI shares the correct itinerary, but lies that you've had an accident. And then it urgently requests money.
Finances
Where you keep your money is visible to a peculiar degree. You trust a waiter to carry off your credit card at the end of dinner (perhaps a uniquely American foible). Anyone with your bank account and routing number (which I'll remind you is proudly printed on every check) can just ask your bank to send them money. There is a sophisticated, multi-billion-dollar fraud industry solely focused on finding your financial details and stealing your money.
The kitchen
You are trying a new recipe tonight. Between putting away the groceries and pulling out the requisite spices you glance down at the recipe on your phone to see what temperature to set the oven to.
Phone
Awhile back your various accounts began requesting your phone number. They said it would make them more secure. When you log in, they now send a code to your phone for you to confirm. This seems reasonable, but it is actually concerningly easy for a bad actor to reach out to your phone carrier, pretend to be you, and successfully convince them to move your number from your phone to theirs!
Upstairs
Moving upstairs, siting next to the family photos, your router blinks away. In the office is your laptop. A deceptively unassuming place for the one device with all the passwords that collectively control your entire life.
Home network
Your router was set up by an installer years ago and never touched since. The default admin password and firmware that hasn't been updated in years is the Wi-Fi network shared by every laptop, phone, and gadget in the house. The router sees (and controls) all your internet traffic. Default credentials and a never-been-updated firmware present vulnerabilities for hackers to view everything you do online, steal your credentials, and use your devices themselves.
Passwords
Every new website, needs a new password. It's a lot to remember. So you cheat. You have this one password you began using during college. First it was just for your email account... then your bank... and now a dozen shopping websites (oops!). Unfortunately what makes it easy for you to remember, makes it easy for a fraudster to exploit. If any one of these websites has a leak, that compromises every service you use.
The smart home
In the corners, the tucked-away places, your other connected devices are always on. Even in the dead of night your house is not quiet, in fact it never stops talking.
Connected devices
The doorbell camera is a 24/7 video feed. The robot vacuum maps your floor plan. The smart speaker continually listens for its wake word. The kids' toy connects to Wi-Fi for some undecipherable reason. The home battery automatically regulates your power consumption. The satellite antenna on your roof connects to the internet via space. Each one has its own app, its own account, and its own security vulnerabilities. Each one has intimate knowledge about how you live your life.
These risks are not new. But AI has made exploiting them cheaper, easier, and faster. This trend will only continue.
In the age of AI, we should assume everything that can be hacked will be.
Resilience is possible. We must reimagine personal security.
Top security vulnerabilities
We used the house to develop a compelling picture of various vulnerabilities. Here we will formalize this into a checklist.
Reused and weak passwords are still the most common way accounts get taken over. One breached account unlocks other logins that shares the same password. A password manager, with a unique, complex password for each account, fixes this whole class of problems.
A stolen password alone shouldn’t be enough to compromise your accounts. It is important to have a second method to authenticate you are you. These include biometrics (e.g. Face ID), physical security keys, passkeys, authenticator apps, and SMS. 2FA is good to have for any account, but is most critical for your core accounts: email, password manager, finances.
Forgotten logins still hold a password, an email address, your data, and saved financial information. Delete what you no longer use, and revoke connected apps you don’t recognize (i.e. Sign in with... Google, Facebook, etc.).
Your address, email, phone, age, and list of relatives are likely already online and accessible for merely a few dollars. Armed with your info it is easier for a bad actor to open financial accounts in your name. Knowing this information is available means we need to minimize the potential damage it can cause. “Freezing” your credit at the three top credit bureaus is a simple step to prevent this.
Most accounts offer a basic form of 2FA via SMS. While this is better than nothing, your phone number is vulnerable. Scammers can utilize a SIM swap to move your number to their phone. Carriers provide the option to lock SIM swaps, but you need to request it.
The router sees every device in the house. Default admin passwords, old firmware, UPnP, and cheap smart gadgets are common vulnerabilities. Change the admin password, turn remote device management off, and know what connected devices are actually on the network and why they need access.
A lost laptop without full-disk encryption is an open archive. Missed updates leave known holes. Anything exposed to the public internet gets scanned constantly — keep home services on a private network, not open to the world.
This is where you sign in to all your accounts. Extensions with broad access can read every page, including what you type. Leftover cookies and history are easy for bad actors to grab. Keep extensions few, and clear browsing data routinely.
A card number that leaks from a merchant only hurts if it still works. Virtual or single-use numbers, locking cards you rarely use, and a monthly glance at statements catch or prevent compromised card before they hurt your finances.
“Social engineering” is the phrase used to describe when a bad actor is able to get unauthorized access or information by convincing someone to give it to them. The typical form this takes is an unknown email or call impersonating a family member. Setting up a family safe word is one helpful prevention technique.
A quarterly check-in keeps the work in place: a clean breach check, keys on new accounts, freezes still on, extensions still minimal, nothing unfamiliar on the router, updates installed, people-search re-listings, and unused accounts and app access removed. Once a year, pull your free credit reports.
What Salus does
$100
Exposure report
The long view
Recent breaches
These are the six most common types of personal data exposed online. Each block below names a few of the largest confirmed or reported breaches from 2026.
Scenarios are illustrative. Data breach counts are as reported by companies, regulators, or established press. Some investigations are still open.
