Month: January 2025

‘Nearly half’ of Gen Z and Millennial respondents in 20,000-strong Yubico survey claim to have been victims of breaches.

47 percent of Gen Z and 46 percent of Millennials claim to have had passwords hacked in Yubico’s latest annual report
But they’re also the demographics supposedly most aware of and keen to adopt hardware security keys
73 percent of Gen Z are also worried about the rise of AI in cyberattacks

Gen Z and Millennials are just as at risk to password breaches as anyone else, a new report from Yubico has claimed.

Its survey found 47% of Gen Z and 46% of Millennials reporting their social media accounts passwords had been breached at some point, findings which appear to run at odds with 63% of respondents across the 20,000-strong sample size claiming they felt secure about cybersecurity measures in place to protect their personal information.

And yet, the report also reveals 70% of respondents reported being the victim of a cyberattack in the past twelve months, indicative of overconfidence and a lack of cybersecurity education. 40% of respondents claimed they haven’t received any cybersecurity training at work.

Gen Z and Millennial cybersecurity attitudes in the workplace

Things get worse when considering nearly half (49%) of respondents reported being more concerned about their personal data than that of their company or workplace, demonstrating business and enterprise owners can’t view computer and cybersecurity literacy as an innate skill in the youngest generations when considering the resilience of their own digital infrastructure.

It also seems silly to imply that younger generations are more likely to take to and understand the implications of new technologies more easily, when 58% of survey respondents reported their concern about AI’s continued “sophisticated” role in cyberattacks.

Yubico’s view on authentication methods

The primary purpose of the report appears to be to advocate for alternative authentication methods in the workplace, with just 21% of workers reporting that they use a mobile authenticator app. Yubico’s report does note workers may have valid reasons for not using this method, such as not wanting to use a personal smartphone for work or simply not having one

To this end, Yubico advocates for passwordless MFA solutions such as software-based passkeys (seeing widespread support in the tech industry), plus physical security keys.

“In addition to being highly secure, passkeys greatly simplify the user experience,” noted Derek Hanson, Yubico’s VP of Standards and Alliances.

“By removing the need for users to remember complex passwords, it reduces the friction associated with logging in and eliminates the frustration of forgotten passwords. This can lead to increased user satisfaction and productivity, especially in enterprise environments where employees often juggle multiple accounts and passwords.”

“When we look at today’s options for passkeys, those that are device-bound on security keys provide the highest level of phishing-resistance and meet the strictest security standards.”

The report concludes by suggesting, “embracing emerging [technology] like hardware security keys and passkeys will undoubtedly play a pivotal role in safeguarding our digital identities and securing the systems and services we rely on every day”, a utopian notion that’s nicely bookended by the reveal that 39% of respondents believe that a standard username and password combination is the most secure authentication available.

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Every CES has its selection of weird and wonderful announcements – and here’s the weird from 2025.

Part of the appeal of the CES show every year is that we get to see some pretty unusual and out-of-the-box products, alongside the regular slew of TVs, laptops, speakers, and standard electronics. And CES 2025 certainly didn’t disappoint when it came to launches and unveilings that were a little out of the ordinary.

Here, we’ve collected together the most eyebrow-raising sights we came across on the CES 2025 floor in Las Vegas. We’ve got cute little robots, weird-looking face masks, systems to project makeup on to your face, and more besides.

While you might not want to get in line to buy all (or any) of these various products, they’re definitely worth a look if you’re interested in tech. They also all provide evidence that tech companies are still capable of innovating and surprising us, even if the best iPhones have looked very much the same for the past decide or so.

1. Mirumi robot

Here’s looking at you (Image credit: Yukai Engineering)

Tiny robots are nothing new to us here at at TechRadar, but you don’t often see cuddly ones designed to latch on to your bag, which is what we have with the Mirumi robot from Yukai Engineering. It might just be the strangest thing we saw at CES 2025, even though it’s been a particularly strong weird tech field this year.

The robot has just one party trick really, which is to steal glances at passing people, thanks to the motion sensors built inside it. The idea is – we think – that it’s a bit like having a little toddler or a pet to carry around with you, something that’s a curious companion rather than anything that offers any functionality.

2. Electric Salt Spoon

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Too much salt is bad for you, if you didn’t know, but the taste and tang that salt adds to food makes it hard to cut down on it or do without it entirely. Enter the Electric Salt Spoon: a device currently only on sale in Japan, which has a clever way of making your food taste saltier without any extra condiments.

What it does is group together the sodium ions in whatever you’re eating, so they’re more concentrated on the spoon. That makes the food taste saltier, even if there’s no extra salt on it – and while we haven’t been able to test out the smart piece of cutlery for ourselves, we’re definitely impressed by the idea.

3. Willo AutoFlo Plus

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Anything that encourages kids to brush their teeth more often and for longer has to be good, and that’s what the Willo AutoFlo Plus has been made to do: it automates as much of the tooth-brushing process as possible, piping through the toothpaste and adding some movement to help get teeth clean and shiny.

The device even takes care of the rinsing for you, so that’s something else you don’t have to worry about, while the accompanying app keeps track of teeth-brushing habits. Pricing starts at $249 (about £200 / AU$400), and you get a choice of brush sizes and toothpaste flavors when you place your order.

4. Wonder Blocks and Petal

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Bug watchers can take their hobby to a whole new level with the Wonder Blocks and the Petal camera. It’s a high-tech system that attracts bugs, butterflies and bees, and lets you monitor them from an app on your phone – there’s even built-in AI that’ll identify the small creatures you’re looking at on the units.

It’s a modular system, so you can combine blocks and cameras as you need to fit whatever space you’ve got (and you can of course add on your own foliage and other extras). The Petal camera, which looks like a flower, has a solar panel attached too, which cuts down on the number of recharges required.

5. Kosé Mixed Reality Makeup

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Imagine being able to see how your makeup might look before you actually apply it: that’s the promise of a new Mixed Reality Makeup system from Kosé, which uses high-speed projection mapping to paint your face virtually, and lets you try out a whole host of styles to see which ones you like the look of most.

The tech is doing more than just projecting an image – it’s actually looking at and measuring the contours of the face it’s working with in real time, to create a realistic effect with no actual makeup required. For now, it’s not available outside of Japan, but we’re hoping it comes to international markets before too long.

6. Nanoleaf LED Light Therapy Face Mask

A fashionable look (Image credit: Nanoleaf)

This isn’t a gadget you’d really want to wear out in public, but the Nanoleaf LED Light Therapy Face Mask can apparently do wonders for your complexion. As you might have figured out by the name and the image above, it uses light (both red and near-infrared) to rejuvenate your skin and treat a variety of conditions.

There are actually seven different skin conditions the mask is designed to tackle, and you can switch between them as needed – the device has FDA regulatory approval in the US, adding credibility to its claims around skin healing and wellness. It’ll cost you $149.99 in the US – that’s about £120 / AU$240, though at the moment we don’t have any official word on global pricing and availability.

7. Nékojita FuFu

Keep your drinks and food cool (Image credit: Yukai Engineering)

From the same Yukai Engineering company that brought us the Mirumi robot (see above), we have the Nékojita FuFu. This little bot is designed to sit at the side of your cup, bowl, or plate, and then gently blow on whatever you’re drinking and eating, so it cools down more quickly to let you comfortably consume it.

There’s a little bit more tech involved here than you might imagine, including seven different blowing modes that are cycled through at random (to make the bot seem a little more natural and spontaneous). Like the look of it? There’s going to be a crowdfunding campaign to make this little robot an actual product.

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