We hear it constantly:

“If you use public wi-fi, criminals will steal your financial information and passwords!”

“Don’t use USB chargers at the airport because you will be ‘juice-jacked’ and infected with malware!”

“Turn off Bluetooth when you are not using it otherwise hackers will compromise your phone!”

Those claims, and many similar ones, are false and need to be retired.

If you heard any of those claims, this site is for you.

We coined the term “hacklore”, a blend of hacking and folklore, to refer to modern urban legends about digital safety.

Hacklore spreads quickly and confidently, passed from person to person as if it were hard-earned wisdom. But like most folklore, it isn’t grounded in reality, no matter how plausible it sounds. Hacklore focuses on preventing dramatic, spy-thriller-style attacks, not the everyday threats the average person actually encounters.

Hacklore.org exists to separate myth from reality and to be the central hub of information for people looking to take precautions that are informed by the way attacks work in the real world.. Our goal is to help everyday people and small organizations focus on the simple, fact-based steps that truly protect their accounts and devices—keeping software up to date, using strong passwords and passkeys, using a password manager, and enabling multi-factor authentication.

By replacing fear with facts, we can make digital safety advice more accurate, actionable, and effective for everyone.

You play a key role! Check out the rest of the site starting with the open letter and spread the word.