The Mel Robbins Podcast
#1 Cybersecurity Expert Reveals: 5 Ways to Protect Yourself Online (Starting Tonight)
19 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What are common online habits that make you vulnerable to scams?
Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. Here's something I did that I'm not proud of, but I'm going to tell you anyway. So yesterday I got this pop-up notification that said, update Apple settings, and you know what I did? Click, ignore. Then I got another one from Zoom, and you know what I did? Click, ignore. You ever do that?
I mean, why do I need to update all this stuff all the time? Maybe you're a little bit like me in that way. You kind of accept all the cookies on every website. You share your location so Uber Eats can find you no matter when you're ordering. You grant camera access to apps so that you can use them, duh.
Well, our guest today, a cybersecurity expert, told me that all these little things that I'm doing, and I know you do them too, They are making you and me an easy target for scammers. In fact, I bet you lock your door at night. But here you and I are leaving the door wide open for hackers to just walk right into our accounts. Now, before I even get into this, I need to tell you something.
I didn't think I needed to care about cybersecurity. I thought cybersecurity was something for like tech people or banks or corporations or governments. I didn't think it had anything to do with me and you. Then I met Caitlin Sarian, also known as Cybersecurity Girl to the millions of people that follow her online.
And she told me that all these little things that you and I do, you know what we're doing? We are giving the keys to our accounts to hackers. They can get in in less than 30 seconds. And I thought, oh my gosh, this isn't just a tech person's problem. This is everyone's problem. Caitlin has worked in cybersecurity consulting for over a decade. She's an award-winning cybersecurity expert.
At EY, for example, she performed global cybersecurity awareness assessments across 20 key cyber sectors. At TikTok, She was the global lead of cybersecurity advocacy. And now, well, now Caitlin travels all over the world. She works with publicly traded companies, consulting on compliance related to data, our data, and privacy laws.
She's here to give you and me the step-by-step simple things that we need to do that you need to do with your kids, that you need to do with your grandparents and your aging parents. She's gonna tell you the number one scam right now on Venmo. And if you don't hear about this, you're gonna fall for it.
She's also gonna tell you the five simple things that you can do as soon as you're done listening or watching this that will protect you from 95% of the threats online. Caitlin says, everyone, that means you, that means me, is an easy target to be scammed online because we were never taught How to properly protect ourselves. Until today.
Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. It is such an honor to be together and to spend this time with you. I am so glad you're here. And if you're a new listener or you're here because someone shared this with you, I just wanted to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family.
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Chapter 2: What is the biggest cybersecurity mistake people make?
And for the last three years, Caitlin has been on a mission to make cybersecurity easy, not just to the big companies she's consulting with, but to real people like you and me. She has been recognized with multiple awards, including Cybersecurity Woman of the World, cybersecurity educator of the year, top cyber news magazine, 40 under 40 in 2024. You're going to love her.
She's brilliant down to earth, and she's going to teach you and me the simple, fast changes that will protect you, your money, and your privacy. Please help me welcome Caitlin Sarian to the Mel Robbins podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here. This is one of these conversations that I am equal parts so excited for.
And I'm also feeling a little nervous because I know I'm going to learn that I'm doing a lot of things wrong.
So do you get that a lot with people? Yeah, but the thing is, you're not supposed to know all this. Like we were never taught this. So you shouldn't feel like embarrassed or ashamed by it. Okay. We're gonna like empower you with the right things to do.
Okay, I love that. And here's where I wanna start. What could change about my life if I take everything to heart that you are about to teach us about cybersecurity, protecting ourselves, making smart decisions, especially online, What could change about my life if I apply everything you're about to teach us?
Yeah. So cyber scams are massive right now. And actually, that economy is the third largest economy in the world. That's how much money they're making from these cyber scams. Wait a minute. The third? Third largest. U.S., China, cybersecurity scams. What? Yeah. It's more than, I think, Germany and Japan's economy combined. So... It's not a matter of if it happens to people, it's a matter of when.
And no one's talking about it. And a lot of times when people are getting scammed, they're ashamed of it. So the point of this podcast is to empower you and give you cybersecurity routines that you can do, simple, easy, actionable tips that you can take back and start incorporating into your life so you feel safer and more protected online.
Wow. Well, you've made cybersecurity relatable for millions of people who follow you online, who watch your content in the ways that you consult. What is it the wake up call that you want people to have in terms of what we're going to talk about today?
Yeah. So if you're listening to this on a phone, an iPad, or a computer, like this is for you. Because what people don't realize is they don't think they need cyber. But anytime you go online, you need to understand like these cyber tips and like really protect yourself. Because no one has taught us how to protect ourselves. We're given a phone before we can even speak.
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Chapter 3: What should you do if your phone is lost or stolen?
So hold on a second. See, already I'm like, wait a minute.
We'll get into this. We'll get into this.
So you were talking about incognito mode being where you're like, okay, I think I'm going to be sneaky and I'm going to put onto my browser, whatever browser you use, the incognito mode where I think if I go to a website, the website doesn't know that it's Mel Robbins there, but that's not what's happening. No. What's happening?
What's happening is that your computer is not saving the cookies and tags and pixels that are automatically loaded. So cookies, tags, and pixels, you accept cookies pretty much every time you go online. I do.
Chapter 4: What are the five essential moves to protect yourself online?
It's really annoying. And then I want, well, we're going to get into this. But yeah, so it actually just doesn't do it on your own computer, but they can technically still see who on the other side who's on. Whoa. Yeah.
Okay. Don't worry. I'm feeling like I've made a lot of mistakes. Okay.
There's no such thing as mistakes. There's lessons learned.
Okay. And you have so many specific lessons and specific things that you want us to do starting now. And so I want to start with some quick fire questions. And so as an expert in cybersecurity, you never hand out your real birthday or name or phone number online.
Why? Correct. Correct. Before we even get into that, I want to say one thing because I think we're going to go through this list and people are going to be like, oh my gosh, I do all these things. At the end of this podcast, I'm going to give you the five things that are absolutely essential. These ones are a little bit more for people that want more privacy like myself.
So I don't want people to get worried.
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Chapter 5: How can you spot scam links and fake emails?
you know a couple questions in like oh my gosh I do this all the time I'm going to explain why and I'm also going to go through the pros and cons right so back to your question with like why I don't give like my real identity out online my question back to you is why do they need it uh so they can ship me all the stuff I'm buying but why do they need your name uh why do they need your phone number how they ever called you
No, but it's required.
If you have a Google Voice number, Google allows you to generate a number that gets forwarded to your real number. Okay. So I kind of usually give that if I absolutely need to give a phone number. I don't ever give my real information. Okay. And that's because... There's constantly profiles being made about you. And the more information you have online, the more it's sold to more and more people.
My manager, for example, got a letter, like a handwritten letter in her mail with a picture of her house saying, we're in. We know exactly where you live. We've been tracking and monitoring you. What? We will take it. Don't worry. We'll be nice. We'll take it out if you pay us this much money in crypto. That's because her address was online. These scams are getting more and more intense.
And so if I don't have to give like my real information, especially to like places that aren't shipping to you, right? If you're just like signing up for an account, like why have we thought we need to be so truthful about who we are online? So I always tell people make up an alternate persona.
Different name, different date of birth, you know, technically not a different address unless it's, you know, shipping to you like Amazon. You obviously have to give your right address. But like if it's for a movie theater, why do they need to know your address? It's so true. I hadn't even thought about this.
And I guess it's because I have such a hard time keeping track of the actual information.
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Chapter 6: What steps can you take to protect your family from scams?
But if you have a alias, so you have a name that you use whenever you sign up for a newsletter. you have a phone number and you just mentioned that you could get a free Google phone number. It can be forwarded your phone or not. And that's the one that you use. You have a different email address that is only for signups. And now you are limiting the information that's out there.
And it didn't even occur to me that you could ship packages to your address to a different name. Yeah, it's your house. Doesn't matter who's addressed to it. Wow. Okay. You never create online accounts that you don't need. Why?
Well, again, more information out there. Like, again, every single website wants you to create an account because that's the marketing world that we live in, right? It's way better for them. And we don't need to create an account. It's like, again, movie, everything, movie theaters, reservations. We went to a spa here and like, please create an account.
I was like, I told my boyfriend, give me your, give me your phone. I'm And it's like, again, a random email. There are also sites out there where you can generate real working phone numbers and emails and it will just all go to the one app versus like, you know, going actually into your inbox.
Well, I'll tell you, I've changed my cell phone number probably three times in the last four years because it's ended up online.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I have changed my email, I don't know how many times. And because of that reason that people find it, I end up on email lists. It's just unbelievable. You know, as a cybersecurity expert, you also never post vacation photos while you're still away. Why?
Yeah. So besides like the actual physical threat, right? Like everyone's like, oh, you know, people know that you're away from your house. They're going to, you know, burglarize, which is still accurate. Scammers now are getting even more specific on what they can do. So there's a lot of, it's called open source intelligence.
It's anything you do online is really easy to find if you're public, right? And so for open source intelligence, if they see you and they say, oh, you're at a Marriott hotel in the Bahamas. Okay, I'm going to call the Marriott hotel, pretend I'm you. And try to get more information, maybe get your credit card, do whatever, just cause like a mess.
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Chapter 7: What are the critical settings to check on your devices tonight?
So there's a lot of weird risks that you don't realize that come with it. So whenever I go anywhere, I post after, at least a week after, and I don't actually post the exact location. I'm not gonna post the exact hotel. I'm not gonna post the flight I was on, but I am gonna post like, hey, I went to the Bahamas. wherever that may be. Usually just tag the city.
I don't have to tag exactly where I stayed. I don't have to tag exactly where I went. And it's fine. You're still there. I mean, what's the difference? The people that know that you're in the Bahamas at that time know that you're there. And the other people that don't need to know, find out a week later or two weeks later.
I mean, it makes perfect sense. As a cybersecurity expert, you also warn people about free Wi-Fi. Why?
Yes. So the free Wi-Fi is not free. I always say if there's any free product or app, you are the product. Okay. Say that again. If there's any free product or app, you are the product. They are using your data and selling it in some way, shape or form or selling you ads. Like you are literally the product of anything that's free.
Okay.
So that's one thing. Free Wi-Fi, especially, there's different types of free Wi-Fi, right? There's like free Wi-Fi in airports where you connect to the free Starbucks Wi-Fi or there's free Wi-Fi in airplanes. So we're going to go through a few different ones. Okay, please.
Because now I'm thinking about, okay, what's happening here?
So I want to just let you kind of visualize how Wi-Fi works, right? Okay.
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Chapter 8: What should you do immediately if you hear about a data breach?
You're connected and let's say you go on Facebook and you send a message to your friend. That message is literally like flying through cyberspace. Just imagine your own little tunnel. It's flying through the tunnel to your friend, right?
The issue is when you're on open free Wi-Fi, it's usually unencrypted, which means that anyone can go in and out of that tunnel and see what you're doing if they want to, if they know how to.
Okay. So... So hold on. Let me just make sure I'm tracking. Yeah, yeah. So if you're sitting at a airport and you've logged on to the free Wi-Fi... Right. Okay. And I'm texting my husband, who's back at our house... And I'm texting him something related to a bill that came in and banking information. And hey, I forgot my credit card.
Could you send me a photo of the back of the card kind of thing? You're saying that since it's not encrypted, it's just floating through the Wi-Fi. Right. If there's somebody that's really smart and knows how to get into those pipes, they can see the stuff? Yes. What?
So every time you do any data, like you do anything online- Well, the good thing is, you're not an idiot. You're not an idiot. The good thing is most of the U.S. websites now are secure. How do you know? If you go to the website, the URL, the, you know, www.whatever. Yes. It says HTTPS.
Yes.
The S stands for secure. Oh, hold on. So if it's only HTTP? Not secure. What? The S means it's secure? S means it's secure.
Why do I not know this?
A lot of people don't know this. It's like a normal, like people don't know this. No one taught us this.
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