Why we built this
Online scams and cyber threats don't discriminate by age — kids get tricked by fake prizes and mystery links, while adults and seniors are increasingly targeted by convincing bank-impersonation calls and phishing texts. Most online safety resources are written for one audience or the other, and often behind logins, paywalls, or dense technical jargon.
cyberhygiene.tools takes a different approach: practical, free, judgement-free tools and games that work for the whole family, in one place. A Kids Zone with games that teach scam-spotting through play. Plain-English guidance for adults and seniors. And a set of genuinely private security tools — a password checker, a passphrase generator, a phishing email checker, and more — that never send what you type to a server.
How the site works
- Every tool runs in your browser. Passwords, email text, and quiz answers you type into our tools are processed entirely on your own device and are never transmitted, logged, or stored.
- No accounts, ever. You never need to sign up or log in to use anything on this site.
- Free, supported by ads. The site is funded by advertising, not by collecting or selling your data — see our Privacy Policy for the full detail on what is and isn't collected.
- Built for more than one country. The country selector in the navigation adjusts scam-reporting contacts to match where you live, covering some of the most-used countries on the internet.
Who's behind it
cyberhygiene.tools is an independent project built and maintained in New Zealand. It isn't run by a large company — it's a small, ongoing effort to make cyber hygiene (the everyday habits that keep you safe online, the same way washing your hands keeps you healthy) easier to learn and easier to teach to the people you care about.
Questions, feedback, or found a problem?
We'd genuinely like to hear from you.
Get in touch
What we are trying to fix
Most online safety advice fails for one of three reasons. It is written for people who already understand the subject. It is written to frighten rather than to equip. Or it is written to sell something, which quietly reshapes what gets recommended.
The result is that the people who most need this material — older relatives, parents who do not play the games their children play, anyone who finds the whole area intimidating — read a paragraph, conclude it is not for them, and close the tab. Meanwhile the handful of habits that prevent most real harm are genuinely simple and can be explained in plain language in a few minutes.
cyberhygiene.tools exists to close that gap. Everything here is written for somebody with no technical background, kept free, and structured around what actually prevents loss rather than what sounds thorough.
The principles we build to
- Nothing you type leaves your device. Every tool runs as JavaScript in your browser. There is no server-side processing, no database, and no log of what you entered — because building it any other way would create a risk that did not exist before you visited.
- No accounts, ever. No sign-ups, no email addresses, no profiles. An account we do not have is an account that cannot be breached.
- Plain language, always. If a sentence needs a glossary, it gets rewritten.
- Honest about limits. No tool here makes anyone safe. We say what each one can and cannot tell you, because advice that overpromises gets discarded the first time it fails.
- Advertising stays out of the advice. We do not run affiliate links inside safety content, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. Our editorial policy covers this in detail.
How the site is organised
The Kids teaches through games rather than warnings, because children replay games and ignore posters. Three games cover scam recognition, and the supporting material is written in the words a child will actually use. There is no chat, no messaging between players, no sign-up and no personal data collection.
The Adults and Seniors section deals with what is currently costing people money: bank impersonation calls, invoice redirection, cloned-voice emergencies, and investment fraud. It is written to be shared with a parent or grandparent without sounding like an accusation.
The tools answer a single question quickly — is this link safe, is this password strong, has it leaked, is this email genuine.
The guides are the longer reads: setting up a password manager, securing your email account, gaming safety for parents, small business basics, and what to do in the first 24 hours after being defrauded.
Where the advice comes from
Everything is written from scratch for this site and checked against published guidance from recognised national cyber security and consumer protection agencies — CERT NZ and Netsafe here in New Zealand, and their equivalents in the other countries the site serves. Where that guidance has changed, we say so. A fair amount of familiar security advice has aged badly, and repeating it because it is familiar does readers no favours.
We are not a government agency, a law enforcement body, or a scam recovery service. Where a situation needs one of those, we say so and point you to them.
Built in New Zealand, written for everywhere
The site is made in New Zealand, which shows in the examples we reach for and the agencies we name first. The underlying advice is not country-specific, and the country selector in the navigation switches the scam-reporting contacts to match where you are. If a contact listed for your country is out of date, telling us fixes it for everyone who reads it afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs cyberhygiene.tools?
A small independent team in New Zealand. It is not owned by a security company, and nothing on the site is written to sell a product.
Is the site really free?
Yes. No accounts, no sign-ups, no paid tiers and no email address required. It is funded by display advertising rather than by charging readers or selling data.
Do your tools send anything to a server?
No. They run entirely in your browser and process what you type on your own device. You can confirm it by disconnecting from the internet after a tool page loads — it keeps working.
Do you offer help recovering money from a scam?
No, and we would be cautious of anyone who does for a fee. We point you to the right agency for your country on the Report a Scam page, and set out what to do in which order.
Can I use your material with a class or community group?
Yes. The games need no accounts or setup and work on a shared screen, and the guides are written to be read aloud or shared directly. We would be glad to hear how it goes.