As teenagers pull off some of the world's most high-profile cyber attacks, WIRED just dropped a comprehensive digital security guide targeting the demographic that's both most vulnerable and most dangerous online. The timing isn't coincidental - with recent security breaches like 'Signalgate' exposing even government officials' opsec failures, the need for basic digital hygiene has never been more urgent.
WIRED just published what might be the most practical digital security guide of 2025, and it's aimed squarely at the demographic that's simultaneously the most vulnerable and most dangerous online: teenagers. The comprehensive guide, penned by cryptography expert JP Aumasson and senior security writer Lily Hay Newman, arrives as cyber threats continue escalating across all age groups.
The timing feels intentional. Just this year, the so-called 'Signalgate' incident exposed how even US defense officials can bungle basic operations security when they accidentally added a journalist to a classified group chat on Signal. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's infamous "we are currently clean on OPSEC" message became an instant meme about how not to handle secure communications.
But WIRED's guide goes way beyond government fumbles. It tackles the reality that today's teens are digital natives navigating an increasingly hostile online landscape without much formal training. "Teenagers have always been formidable hackers," the guide opens, referencing how some of this year's most brazen cyber attacks were carried out by minors.
The heart of the guide centers on compartmentalization - treating your online life "like rooms in a house" where each room has a separate key. It's not just about having strong passwords (though that matters), but about creating distinct digital identities that can't easily be linked together. Think your main Gmail account for family stuff, school email for academics, and pseudonymous accounts for everything else.
This approach directly addresses one of the biggest security failures people make: using the same username, password, or email across multiple platforms. When one account gets compromised, everything else falls like dominoes. The guide recommends using password managers to generate unique, strong passwords for each service.
On messaging, WIRED strongly advocates for Signal over WhatsApp, even though both offer end-to-end encryption. The key difference? Signal doesn't have access to metadata like contact lists, timestamps, and call duration that WhatsApp collects. For teens concerned about privacy from both outsiders and the platforms themselves, this distinction matters.
