There’s a lot of advice out there for proper password management: Each of your passwords should be strong and unique; use a secure manager to store your passwords; use two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security to your accounts. But there’s another piece of advice that is held in the same regard as the others: Change your passwords often—perhaps once every three months. This habit is so emphasized, many companies and organizations will make you change your passwords multiple times a year in the name of security. The thing is, in all likelihood, this isn’t actually doing anything to help your security.

This idea that changing your passwords multiple times a year is a cornerstone of your security, might be engrained in some of you. After all, it’s not new advice. As PCMag examined, the practice goes back a long time: When security experts write about passwords, they often write about changing passwords, too. It’s just the way the advice has been presented. But that’s likely because it’s anticipating and responding to bad security habits.

Good passwords don’t (usually) need to be changed

Changing your passwords really only makes sense when your passwords are compromised. After all, if no one knows your password, why change it? Still, passwords are cracked all the time. As such, it might seem logical to frequently switch yours up: You never know which of your passwords could be guessed, right? So might as well keep those bad actors on their toes.

But let’s take a step back: There’s no reason any of your passwords should be guessable. If a hacker is able to guess your password, it’s a bad password, and you shouldn’t have been using it in the first place. I’ll take it a step further, and say none of your passwords should be crackable by a computer, either—at least, not on a timeline where it matters.

A good password, meaning one that is both strong and unique, is inherently uncrackable. It should be long, varied, and not in use on any other account. It shouldn’t matter if the companies that control one of your accounts is breached, because this password is different than that one. You can use a tool like Bitwarden’s password tester to see how long different passwords take a computer to crack. “Lifehacker” takes eight seconds to crack. “Lifehackerdaughtcalm” takes centuries.

If your password is strong and unique, and takes longer than a human lifetime to theoretically crack, there’s no need to change that password in three months time. There’s no need to change that password in a year. There’s no need to change that password period—unless you’re presented with an actual threat.

When to change your password

I’m not saying you should never change your password. You should definitely change it if other people know about it. Most often, that happens when the company that holds your account has a data breach. Let’s say AT&T has a mega breach, and authentication data from users is leaked onto the dark web. In that case, you should change your password ASAP. In an event like this, the company in question will probably tell you to do as much, and may even offer you extra perks to make up for the inconvenience of having your data leaked.

Of course, data breaches aren’t the only times good passwords are discovered. Malware is another threat to look out for. If you fall for a phishing scam, for example, and download malware to your computer, it may monitor and steal your passwords to your sensitive accounts. Or, you may be tricked into opening a fake version of a website you have an account for, typing your username and password into that site, and presto: password compromised.

In these cases, your strong and unique password has fallen, so yes, it’s time to change it. But barring an actual reason to do so, you don’t need to bother with switching it up.

To be clear, you’re not hurting your security by changing your passwords. In fact, you might not even have a choice, if your company or organization requires you to change your password every so often. But so long as all of your passwords are strong and unique, and none of them are compromised, you’re just giving yourself more work without any real gains.

Security tips that won’t waste your time

Want some real security gains? Store all those strong and unique passwords in a secure password manager. That way, you only need to remember one strong and unique password—the master key to your password manager. In addition, use two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever possible. 2FA requires a trusted device for secondary authentication after providing the correct password. That way, even if a bad actor knows your password, they won’t be able to break in without access to your trusted device. (Just prioritize an authenticator app or security key over SMS authentication.)

If it’s an option for your accounts, you may want to explore passkeys over passwords, too. Passkeys effectively combine the convenience of passwords with the security of 2FA: They generate a key on your trusted device, which is required when signing into a site. That way, there’s no password to steal. As long as you authenticate yourself on the device—say, through Face ID or a PIN—you’re in.

As long as you make sure each of your accounts is secure using these steps, and you’re aware of any data breaches, there’s no reason to worry about changing your passwords every three months. Stay secure out there.

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Cleaning can be overwhelming to everyone at some point—and creating a habit or schedule you’ll actually stick to can be a big part of the problem. As is this case with other tasks like decluttering and organizing, though, one way to break through the procrastination is by finding the method that works best for you. Here are five of my favorites for you to try.

The FlyLady technique, for stress-free cleaning

The FlyLady cleaning method, popularized by organizational guru Marla Cilley, is all about getting into a soothing, easy cleaning routine that won’t stress you out. To tap into the usefulness of this method, break your home into “zones,” then dedicate 15 minutes per day to the zone you’re currently working on. Yes, this takes time and won’t work immediately, but as Cilley puts it, “It didn’t get dirty in a day, and it’s not going to get clean overnight.” Here’s how the zones are broken up:

• Zone 1 is your entryway, front porch, and dining room. You complete this zone in the first week of the month.

• Zone 2 is the kitchen, which is done during the first full week of the month, meaning the first week in which there are seven full days.

• Zone 3 is the main bathroom plus another room in your house, such as an office or pantry. This happens during the second full week of the month.

• Zone 4 is the primary bedroom and its closets and bathroom during the third full week.

• Zone 5 is the living room, but because it is not a full week, it may overlap with Zone 1. It’s likely that your living room is near your entryway, which helps make this seamless as you start incorporating Zone 1 back into your schedule at the end of the five weeks.

Obviously, if your home is laid out differently or you have your own unique concerns, play with the zones to fit your needs but try to dedicate a week to each one and follow the same schedule every month.

The one-hour method, for when you have a big mess

Largely, I am a proponent of cleaning in small chunks of time over the course of days or weeks. In most cases, 15 minutes per day is all you need to make an impact on your home’s cleanliness over time. In fact, once you get into the habit of doing it like that, the house stays cleaner and requires less work, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of smaller cleaning bursts. Before you get to that point, though, you might have a major mess or two at hand and when that happens, you might need longer, which is why CleanTok influencer @MommyHasntShowered suggests the “one-hour” rule. It’s what it sounds like: You clean for an uninterrupted hour, focusing only on tidying up, and then stop when the hour is done, rewarding yourself with something you enjoy, like ice cream or a favorite show.

Using this one is subjective and probably depends on how urgent the situation is. If you have someone coming over or the mess is so large that it’s taking a toll on your mental health, you may need to pull out this longer work session. If the mess is big but you’d rather tackle it bit by bit, this one’s not for you! Bear in mind, though, that while going at a slower pace over days or weeks can be good for not feeling overwhelmed, getting a lot done in one go can be good for motivation. There are mental and emotional benefits to every approach. The trick is figuring out which one you want to tap into.

The 20/10 approach, for when you’re not motivated

The 20/10 approach combines elements of my beloved daily short-burst schedule and the one-hour method. It comes from Rachel Hoffman’s 2017 book, Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess and simply asks you to clean for 20 minutes, then take a 10-minute break. It’s reminiscent of the Pomodoro productivity technique, which encourages you to work for 25 minutes, then break for five, then get back at it—but here, you have less work time and more chill time. Once your 10 minutes are up, get back into the game, cleaning even more for another 20. Only do this two to four times, though, because again, we don’t want to get overwhelmed. What I find most useful is taking the 10-minute break in the spot I just cleaned, so I can really revel in my outcome. If I cleaned my living room, I’m going take that break on the couch, enjoying my tidy surroundings. If I cleaned the kitchen, I’m gonna eat a snack over the counter, where everything is clean and clutter-free. Remember that you’re not just cleaning to clean, but rather for some kind of benefit, which is more often than not just the freedom to enjoy a tidier, brighter space.

The one-tool method, for when you need some structure

If you really don’t know where to begin as you look to clean up for the day, try the one-tool method. This approach relies on some of the classic cleaning advice I love (like not trying to do everything at once) but turns it slightly on its head: Where you’d usually tackle one zone at a time, moving from area to area over the course of a few days, try tackling one task at at time. When using the “one tool” framework, you will be breaking one of my cardinal rules, which is not jumping from room to room during one day’s scheduled cleaning time, but you’ll be unlocking a completely new kind of efficiency by not having to get the same tools out day after day. Do this every few weeks to shake things up and you’re less likely to get bored.

So, on your first day, maybe you dust. On your second, maybe you vacuum. On your third, maybe you mop. You get the idea. Pick one tool or task and hit each room in your home.

Junebugging, for when you can’t focus

Sometimes, you know what needs to be cleaned, but you just can’t focus on it. Tap into that and go with a method that enables you to mindlessly attack the problem without thinking too hard. The right approach here is the junebug method. There’s a chance you’ve seen this demonstrated or at least mentioned on CleanTok, but the earliest reference to the idea actually came around on Tumblr, where a user explained that to clean up despite their ADHD, they imagined they were like a junebug: “Have you ever seen a junebug get to grips with a window screen? It’s remarkably persistent, but not very focused. All that matters is location.”

Here, you’ll embody that, identifying the area you want to clean, then focusing in on one specific spot. So, if the kitchen needs tidying, focus on the sink. You might wash the dishes in it, put them away, then get distracted as you notice a cupboard needs to be wiped down. After you wipe down the cupboard, remind yourself that you’re supposed to be at the sink; go back to it to scour it or give the faucet a wipe down. While you’re doing that, you might notice you could also wipe down the handles and pulls on the drawers, fridge, and oven. Go do that, but always return to the starting point. This practice kind of lulls you into an easy routine. As long as you keep going back to the first spot and branching out, you’ll move in simple circles and let what would normally distract you actually be your guide.

Not all apps are safe. It’s why I always recommend downloading apps from official app stores, like the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, rather than a random website: Apple and Google both have policies to scan for malware and stop them before reaching app stores. But neither company is perfect, and apps infected with malware end up on official app marketplaces more often that we’d like to think. These apps usually pop up on the Play Store more than the App Store given that Apple is extremely strict, but that doesn’t mean the App Store is impervious to malware—it definitely happens, and we’ve covered it before. In fact, researchers just found a batch of apps containing malicious programs on both Apple’s and Google’s platforms. And it’s the first time this specific type of the malware was found on the iOS App Store.

What is SparkCat?

Researchers at Kaspersky discovered apps on both Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store that contained malicious frameworks, specifically designed to steal crypto wallet recovery phrases—a series of words used to access cryptocurrency in digital wallets. Researchers call this malware “SparkCat,” and they believe it has been circulating since March 2024.

If you downloaded one of these apps on either iOS or Android, the app would likely ask permission to access your photo library, then the malicious framework would launch an optical character recognition (OCR) plug-in to scan and identify text in your images. If the program found text that matched certain keywords, it would then send those images to a remote server. The idea here is to scan your library looking for screenshots that reveal the recovery phrases in your crypto wallet and send them back to the thieves who could then use those phrases to break in and steal from accounts.

One of the first apps to arouse suspicious of Kaspersky researchers was a Chinese food delivery app called ComeCome. It’s still available on both iOS and Android, and is the first known app infected with OCR malware to appear on Apple’s App Store, according to Kaspersky. A negative review all the way from 2023 suggests the app has been using malware to steal information, but it’s not clear the app has been using this specific OCR tactic the whole time.

Kaspersky discovered other apps with a similar malicious framework as well. It’s important to note researchers can’t say whether the malware was placed in these apps by a malicious actor or the app developers embedded it themselves. That said, it appears some apps were designed to attract users without offering legitimate services in return—such as multiple AI messaging services from the same developer. Specifically, that’s WeTink and AnyGPT, which are both still live at the time of writing.

Where to go from here

First of all, if you have any of these affected apps installed on your iPhone or Android, delete them now. Even if the developers didn’t add the malicious framework intentionally (which can happen if a third-party hijacks the app), they aren’t safe to keep on your device. After that, take a moment to clean out your iPhone or Android’s images folder. If you have images containing recovery phrases for your crypto wallet, be sure to delete those, but also consider deleting images that contain any sensitive information in the first place. Other malware strains may take advantage of this OCR tactic to look for social security numbers or bank account information, for example, so it’s best to eliminate that risk altogether.

Finally, exercise caution when downloading new apps, even when doing so through official app stores. Be sure to review all aspects of an app’s page before installing it, including the reviews, description, and screenshots. If anything seems off, it’s probably best to avoid downloading it. And avoid generic AI apps like the plague. Developers know there’s a high demand for AI apps, which means malicious users can slyly add malware to apps in the hope that an AI fan downloads their latest scheme. Don’t fall for it.

After a brief scare yesterday, the USPS has lifted the world’s shortest shipping suspension, confirming that it will continue to deliver packages from China and Hong Kong to the U.S.

The news follows a temporary halt on Chinese parcels following President Trump’s executive order that applies a 10% tariff to Chinese goods and lifting the de minimis exemption for shipments from China. The USPS says it’s currently working on a plan to implement these fees with the “least disruption to package delivery,” but that it will continue to accept impacted packages in the meantime.

While other shipping services like UPS or FedEx have yet to announce their own responses to the President’s order, all will have to come up with some sort of plan. Still, it seems your grandparents overseas will still be able to send you care packages. But that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. While packages will continue to flow, expect delays as shippers learn how to navigate new fees, as well for prices to jump.

While a 10% tariff is fairly self-explanatory (goods from the tariffed country will be 10% more expensive to import), the loss of the de minimis exemption is a little harder to understand, and is likely to be a major thorn in the side of low-cost online Chinese marketplaces like Shein and Temu. 

Enacted in 1930, the de minimis exemption was intended as a way for the U.S. to save itself some hassle, by waving duties and fees on international shipments where the collected revenue would take more effort to charge than the government would get out of them. It typically applies to all packages worth less than $800, which has been a boon for online e-commerce. According to a 2023 U.S. Congressional committee report cited by Reuters, almost half of all de minimis exemptions to this point have been for Chinese packages, with 30% of daily de minimis shipments coming from Temu and Shein.

With those protections going away, said stores would now be subject to customs on all goods, in addition to the 10% tariff, which could raise prices and shipping times. American stores that rely on Chinese warehouses, such as Amazon Haul, could also be impacted.

It’s unclear at this point how much of that additional pain will be passed on to customers. Speaking to Reuters, the CEO of warehouse management software ShipHero, Aaron Rubin, said the fees are “probably about 5 points of margin difference, using de minimis or not, and e-commerce businesses usually have a 10% or 15% margin, so this is a very significant impact”

Conversely, University of Delaware fashion and apparel studies professor Sheng Lu told the outlet that the new rules might only add a few cents to each product. However, despite sounding like a modest price hike, it could still greatly impact smaller Chinese businesses who don’t have the cost-absorbing resources Temu or Shein do.

Note that the de minimis exemption as a whole is not gone—Trump’s new rules are currently only directed at China (originally, they would have also impacted Canada and Mexico, but the President’s recent deals with those countries have given them a 30-day stay on enforcement for now). With that in mind, it’s possible another country’s own version of Temu could dethrone the e-commerce giant, or that Chinese shippers could use an intermediary to slightly reduce their fees.

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If you tend to get overwhelmed by the prospect of cleaning your house, here’s some good news: One of the best cleaning methods out there is designed for people like you. Called the 20/10 rule, it’s been around for a few years, but has really withstood the test of time because of its simplicity and how effective it is.

What is the 20/10 method of cleaning?

The 20/10 method comes from Rachel Hoffman’s 2017 book, Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess. The title is at once bracing and comforting, just what you need as motivation to clean your place and keep it clean. While the book goes into a lot of detail about all the methods you can use to do that, like taking progress pictures and tidying up spaces in a certain order, its first tip—the 20/10 method—is key here.

At its most basic, the method calls for you to spend 20 minutes cleaning and 10 minutes chilling. That’s it, essentially. It’s similar to other productivity techniques, like the Pomodoro method, but gives you less work time and more break time than those do. For maximum efficiency, devote each 20-minute block to a certain surface or area, like a messy desk or a pile of laundry. Chunk by chunk, the task will get done.

What makes 20/10 one of the best cleaning methods

The importance of taking breaks in between bursts of hard work is well-documented. If you work too much, too hard, for too long, you’ll burn out and give up. When you’re using a work-and-rest technique to study or work, you have to think deeply during your “on” times; cleaning, on the other hand, can be slightly more mindless, which is a good thing. You don’t need 25 minutes, as the Pomodoro technique calls for, but you should devote 20.

The breaks are super important, so don’t skimp on them. Try to use them to enjoy the space you just cleaned. If you cleaned a desk, sit at it for your 10 minutes, relishing the experience of using it while it’s tidy. If you folded all the laundry piled on a chair, you should sit in that chair, by God. Giving yourself a full 10 minutes to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor gives you immediate gratification and time to recharge before getting back at it.

How to adapt this method to fit your needs

If you want to try out the 20/10 method, I recommend slotting it into your cleaning schedule for a week or two, but keep track of how it goes. Take notes on whether you feel rested enough after the 10 minutes of break time, or whether you find it hard to sink into a groove in just 20 minutes of effort. After all, these are just guidelines, not rules set in stone. Even the vaunted Pomodoro method has seen adaptations like “animedoro” crop up that make it work better for some people. Feel free to tinker with the 10/20 timing to suit your own needs, provided you are still prioritizing that all-important break.