As the holiday season approaches, many of us will be heading home to spend time with friends and family. While it's a great opportunity to catch up and enjoy each other's company, it's also a time when many of us get roped into fixing the house's spotty Wi-Fi or answering a barrage of tech-related questions. However, this year, consider giving the gift of good security advice instead. With cyber threats on the rise, it's more important than ever to help our loved ones protect themselves online.

As someone who has covered hacks and breaches for over a decade, I've come to realize that cybersecurity is an investment in something you hope never happens. Yet, many people default to the mindset that "it could never happen to me" without realizing that their account passwords from yesteryear may not be sufficient defense against today's hacking efforts. By taking a few minutes to share some simple yet effective security advice with your friends and family, you can help them stay protected and avoid the "oh s—t" moment of realizing they've been hacked.

To get started, I asked Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security, and Caitlin Condon, vulnerability intelligence director at Rapid7, for their top security advice to share with friends and family. Their recommendations focus on the security basics that do the most work to keep online accounts secure. One of the most important things you can do is help your loved ones set up a password manager that stores complex and unique passwords.

Password managers save your login details and can also generate and store complex and unique passwords, so you never have to remember the same password across your various online services. This is especially important, as using the same password across the internet makes all of those accounts more vulnerable to being hacked if someone guesses or steals your password. There are plenty of password managers out there to choose from, including browser-based options, iPhones and iPads' built-in Passwords app, and popular free-to-use password managers like Bitwarden.

Another crucial step is to enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on online accounts. MFA adds an extra layer of security by sending a second code to a device you own or prompting you to generate a code in an authenticator app. This makes it much harder for hackers to access your account, even if they have your password. Tobac recommends turning on MFA, especially for essential accounts like email addresses, which are often the key to accessing other online accounts.

Being "politely paranoid" on the phone is also essential. With the rise of spam texts, calls, emails, and notifications designed to social engineer users into giving away login credentials and personal data, it's more important than ever to be cautious. Tobac suggests verifying the identity of callers by contacting them back using a different method of communication before handing over any sensitive information. You can also bookmark official login pages in your browser for easy access to check secure messages or account transactions when you're concerned about suspicious activity.

In conclusion, giving the gift of good security advice this holiday season is one of the most thoughtful and practical things you can do for your loved ones. By helping them set up a password manager, enabling MFA, and being "politely paranoid" on the phone, you can help them stay protected from online threats and avoid the stress and financial losses that come with being hacked. As Tobac so aptly put it, "That's the best gift you could give them – the gift of not getting hacked."