Technology

Inside Netflix’s bet on advanced video encoding

Published

2 years ago

June 22, 2024

Inside Netflix’s bet on advanced video encoding

Anne Aaron just can’t help herself.

Aaron, Netflix’s senior encoding technology director, was watching the company’s livestream of the Screen Actors Guild Awards earlier this year. And while the rest of the world marveled at all those celebrities and their glitzy outfits sparkling in a sea of flashing cameras, Aaron’s mind immediately started to analyze all the associated visual challenges Netflix’s encoding tech would have to tackle. “Oh my gosh, this content is going to be so hard to encode,” she recalled thinking when I recently interviewed her in Netflix’s office in Los Gatos, California.

Aaron has spent the past 13 years optimizing the way Netflix encodes its movies and TV shows. The work she and her team have done allows the company to deliver better-looking streams over slower connections and has resulted in 50 percent bandwidth savings for 4K streams alone, according to Aaron. Netflix’s encoding team has also contributed to industrywide efforts to improve streaming, including the development of the AV1 video codec and its eventual successor.

Now, Aaron is getting ready to tackle what’s next for Netflix: Not content with just being a service for binge-watching, the company ventured into cloud gaming and livestreaming last year. So far, Netflix has primarily dabbled in one-off live events like the SAG Awards. But starting next year, the company will stream WWE RAW live every Monday. The streamer nabbed the wrestling franchise from Comcast’s USA Network, where it has long been the No. 1 rated show, regularly drawing audiences of around 1.7 million viewers. Satisfying that audience week after week poses some very novel challenges.

“It’s a completely different encoding pipeline than what we’ve had for VOD,” Aaron said, using industry shorthand for on-demand video streaming. “My challenge to (my) team is to get to the same bandwidth requirements as VOD but do it in a faster, real-time way.”

To achieve that, Aaron and her team have to basically start all over and disregard almost everything they’ve learned during more than a decade of optimizing Netflix’s streams — a decade during which Netflix’s video engineers re-encoded the company’s entire catalog multiple times, began using machine learning to make sure Netflix’s streams look good, and were forced to tweak their approach when a show like Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures tripped up the company’s encoders.

When Aaron joined Netflix in 2011, the company was approaching streaming much like everyone else in the online video industry. “We have to support a huge variety of devices,” said Aaron. “Really old TVs, new TVs, mobile devices, set top boxes: each of those devices can have different bandwidth requirements.”

To address those needs, Netflix encoded each video with a bunch of different bitrates and resolutions according to a predefined list of encoding parameters, or recipes, as Aaron and her colleagues like to call them. Back in those days, a viewer on a very slow connection would automatically get a 240p stream with a bitrate of 235 kbps. Faster connections would receive a 1750 kbps 720p video; Netflix’s streaming quality topped out at 1080p with a 5800 kbps bitrate.

The company’s content delivery servers would automatically choose the best version for each viewer based on their device and broadband speeds and adjust the streaming quality on the fly to account for network slow-downs.

To Aaron and her eagle-eyed awareness of encoding challenges, that approach seemed inadequate. Why spend the same bandwidth to stream something as visually complex as an action movie with car chases (lots of motion) and explosions (flashing lights and all that noisy smoke) as much simpler visual fare? “You need less bits for animation,” explained Aaron.

My Little Pony, which was a hit on the service at the time, simply didn’t have the same visual complexity as live-action titles. It didn’t make sense to use the same encoding recipes for both. That’s why, in 2015, Netflix began re-encoding its entire catalog with settings fine-tuned per title. With this new, title-specific approach, animated fare could be streamed in 1080p with as little as 1.5 Mbps.

She-Ra and the Princess of Power is another good example of an animated show with fairly simple visual complexity versus live action-fare.

Image: Netflix

Switching to per-title encoding resulted in bandwidth savings of around 20 percent on average — enough to make a notable difference for consumers in North America and Europe, but even more important as Netflix was eyeing its next chapter: in January of 2016, then-CEO Reed Hastings announced that the company was expanding into almost every country around the world — including markets with subpar broadband infrastructure and consumers who primarily accessed the internet from their mobile phone.

Per-title encoding has since been adopted by most commercial video technology vendors, including Amazon’s AWS, which used the approach to optimize PBS’s video library last year. But while the company’s encoding strategy has been wholeheartedly endorsed by streaming tech experts, it has been largely met with silence by Hollywood’s creative class.

Directors and actors like Judd Apatow and Aaron Paul were up in arms when Netflix began to let people change the playback speed of its videos in 2019. Changes to the way it encodes videos, on the other hand, never made the same kinds of headlines. That may be because encoding algorithms are a bit too geeky for that crowd, but there’s also a simpler explanation: the new encoding scheme was so successful at saving bandwidth without compromising on visual fidelity that no one noticed the difference.

Make that almost no one: Aaron quickly realized that the company’s per-title-based encoding approach wasn’t without faults. One problem became apparent to her while watching Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures. It’s one of those animated Netflix shows that was supposed to benefit the most from a per-title approach.

However, Netflix’s new encoding struggled with one particular scene. “There’s this guy with a very sparkly suit and a sparkly water fountain behind him,” said Aaron. The scene looked pretty terrible with the new encoding rules, which made her realize that they needed to be more flexible. “At (other) parts of the title, you need less bits,” Aaron said. “But for this, you need to increase it.”

That’s a lot of glitter to properly encode.

Screenshot: Netflix

The solution to this problem was to get a lot more granular during the encoding process. Netflix began to break down videos by shots and apply different encoding settings to each individual segment in 2018. Two people talking in front of a plain white wall were encoded with lower bit rates than the same two people taking part in a car chase; Barbie hanging out with her friends at home required less data than the scene in which Mr. Sparklesuit shows up.

As Netflix adopted 4K and HDR, those differences became even more stark. “(In) The Crown, there’s an episode where it’s very smokey,” said Aaron. “There’s a lot of pollution. Those scenes are really hard to encode.” In other words: they require more data to look good, especially when shown on a big 4K TV in HDR, than less visually complex fare.

Aaron’s mind never stops looking for those kinds of visual challenges, no matter whether she watches Netflix after work or goes outside to take a walk. This has even caught on with her kids, with Aaron telling me that they occasionally point at things in the real world and shout: “Look, it’s a blur!”

It’s a habit that comes with the job and a bit of a curse, too — one of those things you just can’t turn off. During our conversation, she picked up her phone, only to pause and point at the rhinestone-bedazzled phone case. It reminded her of that hard-to-encode scene from Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures. Another visual challenge!

Still, even an obsessive mind can only get you so far. For one thing, Aaron can’t possibly watch thousands of Netflix videos and decide which encoding settings to apply to every single shot. Instead, her team compiled a few dozen short clips sourced from a variety of shows and movies on Netflix and encoded each clip with a range of different settings. They then let test subjects watch those clips and grade the visual imperfections from not noticeable to very annoying. “You have to do subjective testing,” Aaron said. “It’s all based on ground truth, subjective testing.”

London’s smoggy fog of the early 50s in The Crown made for another encoding challenge.

Screenshot: Netflix

The insights gained this way have been used by Netflix to train a machine learning model that can analyze the video quality of different encoding settings across the company’s entire catalog, which helps to figure out the optimal settings for each and every little slice of a show or movie. The company collaborated with the University of Southern California on developing these video quality assessment algorithms and open-sourced them in 2016. Since then, it has been adopted by much of the industry as a way to analyze streaming video quality and even gained Netflix an Emmy Award. All the while, Aaron and her team have worked to catch up with Netflix’s evolving needs — like HDR.

“We had to develop yet another metric to measure the video quality for HDR,” Aaron said. “We had to run subjective tests and redo that work specifically for HDR.” This eventually allowed Netflix to encode HDR titles with per-shot-specific settings as well, which the company finally did last year. Now, her team is working on open-sourcing HDR-based video quality assessment.

Slicing up a movie by shot and then encoding every slice individually to make sure it looks great while also saving as much bandwidth as possible: all of this work happens independently of the video codecs Netflix uses to encode and compress these files. It’s kind of like how you might change the resolution or colors of a picture in Photoshop before deciding whether to save it as a JPEG or a PNG. However, Netflix’s video engineers have also actively been working on advancing video codecs to further optimize the company’s streams.

Netflix is a founding member of the Alliance for Open Media, whose other members include companies like Google, Intel, and Microsoft. Aaron sits on the board of the nonprofit, which has spearheaded the development of the open, royalty-free AV1 video codec. Netflix began streaming some videos in AV1 to Android phones in early 2020 and has since expanded to select smart TVs and streaming devices as well as iPhones. “We’ve encoded about two-thirds of our catalog in AV1,” Aaron said. The percentage of streaming hours transmitted in AV1 is “in the double digits,” she added.

And while the roll-out of AV1 continues, work is already underway on its successor. It might take a few more years before devices actually support that next-gen codec, but early results suggest that it will make a difference. “At this point, we see close to 30 percent bit rate reduction with the same quality compared to AV1,” Aaron explained. “I think that’s very, very promising.”

Meridian was a short film made by Netflix specifically to test and train codecs and algorithms for streaming.

Screenshot: Netflix

While contributing to the development of new video codecs, Aaron and her team stumbled across another pitfall: video engineers across the industry have been relying on a relatively small corpus of freely available video clips to train and test their codecs and algorithms, and most of those clips didn’t look at all like your typical Netflix show. “The content that they were using that was open was not really tailored to the type of content we were streaming,” recalled Aaron. “So, we created content specifically for testing in the industry.”

In 2016, Netflix released a 12-minute 4K HDR short film called Meridian that was supposed to remedy this. Meridian looks like a film noir crime story, complete with shots in a dusty office with a fan in the background, a cloudy beach scene with glistening water, and a dark dream sequence that’s full of contrasts. Each of these shots has been crafted for video encoding challenges, and the entire film has been released under a Creative Commons license. The film has since been used by the Fraunhofer Institute and others to evaluate codecs, and its release has been hailed by the Creative Commons foundation as a prime example of “a spirit of cooperation that creates better technical standards.”

Cutting-edge encoding strategies, novel quality metrics, custom-produced video assets, and advanced codecs: in many ways, Netflix has been leading the industry when it comes to delivering the best-looking streams in the most efficient ways to consumers. That’s why the past 14 months have been especially humbling.

Netflix launched its very first livestream in March of 2023, successfully broadcasting a Chris Rock comedy special to its subscribers. A month later, it tried again with a live reunion event for its reality show Love Is Blind — and failed miserably, with viewers waiting for over an hour for the show to start.

The failed livestream was especially embarrassing because it tarnished the image of Netflix as a technology powerhouse that is lightyears ahead of its competition. Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters issued a rare mea culpa later that month. “We’re really sorry to have disappointed so many people,” Peters told investors. “We didn’t meet the standard that we expect of ourselves to serve our members.”

Netflix wants to avoid further such failures, which is why the company is playing it safe and moving slowly to optimize encoding for live content. “We’re quite early into livestreaming,” Aaron said. “For now, the main goals are stability, resilience of the system, and being able to handle the scale of Netflix.” In practice, this means that Aaron’s team isn’t really tweaking encoding settings for those livestreams at all for the time being, even if it forces her to sit through the livestream of the SAG Awards show without being able to improve anything. “We’re starting with a bit more industry-standard ways to do it,” she told me. “And then from there, we’ll optimize.”

The same is true in many ways for cloud gaming. Netflix began to test games on TVs and desktop computers last summer and has since slowly expanded those efforts to include additional markets and titles. With games being rendered in the cloud as opposed to on-device, cloud gaming is essentially a specialized form of livestreaming, apart from one crucial distinction. “They’re quite different,” said Aaron. “[With] cloud gaming, your latency is even more stringent than live.”

Monday Night RAW is coming to Netflix next year and will bring with it even more opportunities to challenge the streamer’s video encoding technology.

Photo: WWE/Getty Images

Aaron’s team is currently puzzling over different approaches to both problems, which requires them to ignore much of what they’ve learned over the past decade. “The lesson is not to think about it like VOD,” Aaron said. One example: slicing and dicing a video by shot and then applying the optimal encoding setting for every shot is a lot more difficult when you don’t know what happens next. “With live, it’s even harder to anticipate complex scenes,” she said.

Live is unpredictable: that’s not just true for encoding but also for Netflix’s business. The company just inked a deal to show two NFL games on Christmas Day and will begin streaming weekly WWE matches in January. This happens as sports as a whole, which has long been the last bastion of cable TV, is transitioning to streaming. Apple is showing MLS games, Amazon is throwing tons of money at sports, and ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. are banding together to launch their own sports streaming service. Keeping up with these competitors doesn’t just require Netflix to spend heavily on sports rights but also actually get good at livestreaming.

All of this means that Aaron and her team won’t be out of work any time soon — especially since the next challenge is always just around the corner. “There’s going to be more live events. There’s going to be, maybe, 8K, at some point,” she said. “There’s all these other experiences that would need more bandwidth.”

In light of all of those challenges, does Aaron ever fear running out of ways to optimize videos? In other words: how many times can Netflix re-encode its entire catalog with yet another novel encoding strategy, or new codec, before those efforts are poised to hit a wall and won’t make much of a difference anymore?

“In the codec space, people were saying that 20 years ago,” Aaron said. “In spite of that, we still find areas for improvement. So, I’m hopeful.”

And always eagle-eyed to spot the next visual challenge, whether it’s a sea of camera flashes or a surprise appearance by Mr. Sparklesuit.

Technology

Google just leaked a first look at Android for PC in action

Published

9 hours ago

January 28, 2026

Press Room

Google just leaked a first look at Android for PC in action

We’ve been waiting months for our first look at Android running on a PC in Google’s upcoming ChromeOS / Android hybrid platform, codenamed Aluminium OS. Now we’ve seen it in action, and have Google to thank for the leak.

9to5Google spotted a bug report related to Chrome Incognito tabs published to the Google Issue Tracker yesterday, including two screen recordings taken from a device running Aluminium OS. Google has now restricted access to the report, but 9to5Google managed to pull the videos first. The site also reports that the bug tracker mentioned an ALOS software version — already confirmed to be the initialism for Aluminium OS — and that the recordings came from an HP Elite Dragonfly 13.5 Chromebook.

The videos themselves — shared to YouTube by Android Authority — add further confirmation that this is Aluminium OS, listing the OS as Android 16, with a build number that matches the ALOS one mentioned in the bug report. It certainly looks like this is an existing Chromebook being used to test the upcoming ALOS experience, which Android head Sameer Samat previously said we should expect to see more from this year.

As for what we see of Aluminium, it’s very much the mashup you’d expect. The taskbar resembles ChromeOS’s, but moves the start button into the center, à la Android. There’s a status bar at the top, more like Android than ChromeOS, with familiar Android icons for battery, Wi-Fi connection, and so on. The video gives us a brief look at the Play Store, along with some split-screen multitasking, but it’s hardly a deep dive of the new OS. We might need to wait for Google to release a video on purpose for that.

Technology

Uber unveils a new robotaxi with no driver behind the wheel

Published

9 hours ago

January 28, 2026

Press Room

Uber unveils a new robotaxi with no driver behind the wheel

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Uber is getting closer to offering rides with no one behind the wheel.

The company recently unveiled a new robotaxi and confirmed that autonomous testing is already underway on public roads in the San Francisco Bay Area. While the vehicle first appeared earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show 2026, the bigger story now is what is happening after the show.

These robotaxis are no longer confined to presentations or closed courses. They are driving in real traffic as Uber prepares for a public launch later this year.

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PRIVATE AUTONOMOUS PODS COULD REDEFINE RIDE-SHARING

Uber’s new robotaxi operates on public roads in the San Francisco Bay Area as the company moves closer to offering fully driverless rides later this year. (Klaudia Radecka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Who is behind Uber’s robotaxi

Uber is the name most riders recognize. However, two partners handle the technology behind the scenes. Lucid Group builds the all-electric vehicle. It is based on the Lucid Gravity SUV, which was designed for long-range efficiency and passenger comfort. Nuro provides the self-driving system. Nuro also leads testing and safety validation. Together, the three companies are developing a robotaxi service that will be available only through Uber.

Uber’s robotaxi is already driving itself

Autonomous on-road testing began last month in the Bay Area. These tests take place on public streets rather than private test tracks. Nuro runs the testing program using trained safety operators who supervise each trip. The focus is on everyday driving situations such as intersections, lane changes, traffic lights and pedestrians. This stage is critical. It allows engineers to evaluate how the system behaves in real conditions before opening rides to the public.

What makes Uber’s robotaxi different

Uber’s robotaxi was designed from the start to operate without a driver. It combines electric vehicle engineering with visible autonomy features that riders can understand.

Key features include:

A multi-sensor system using cameras, lidar and radar for full awareness
A low-profile roof-mounted Halo module integrated into the vehicle
Exterior LED displays that show rider initials and trip status
In-cabin screens for climate, music and support access
Real-time visuals that show what the vehicle sees and plans to do
Seating for up to six passengers with room for luggage

The robotaxi runs on high-performance computing powered by NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor. This system handles the real-time AI processing required for autonomous driving.

A robotaxi ride that explains itself

One standout feature is transparency. Riders can see how the robotaxi perceives the road and plans its next move. The display shows lane changes, yielding behavior, slowing at traffic lights and the planned drop-off point. This helps riders understand what the vehicle is doing instead of guessing. Inside the cabin, passengers can adjust heated seats, climate controls and music. They can also contact support or request the vehicle to pull over if needed.

CAN AUTONOMOUS TRUCKS REALLY MAKE HIGHWAYS SAFER?

The all-electric Uber robotaxi, built with partners Lucid and Nuro, is now navigating real traffic without a human driver. (INA FASSBENDER / AFP via Getty Images)

Uber plans to scale robotaxis across the U.S. and global markets

Uber plans to deploy 20,000 or more robotaxis over the next six years. These vehicles will operate in dozens of U.S. and international markets. Lucid will integrate all required hardware directly on the production line at its Casa Grande, Arizona factory. Uber will own and operate the vehicles along with third-party fleet partners. Every robotaxi ride will be booked through the Uber app, just like a standard Uber trip.

How Uber is handling robotaxi safety and regulation

Safety sits at the center of this rollout. Nuro’s validation process combines simulation, closed-course testing and supervised on-road driving. The system relies on an end-to-end AI foundation model paired with clear safety logic. The goal is predictable, comfortable driving across a wide range of conditions. Uber and its partners are also working with regulators, policymakers and local governments to ensure the service aligns with public safety standards and city planning goals.

When Uber’s driverless rides are expected to launch

Uber says the first autonomous rides will launch in a major U.S. city later in 2026. The service will be available exclusively through the Uber app. Production of the robotaxi is expected to begin later this year, pending final validation.

What this means to you

If you use Uber, driverless rides may soon appear as an option. These vehicles could offer quieter trips, more consistent driving and improved availability during peak times. For cities, a shared electric robotaxi fleet could help reduce emissions and congestion. For riders, seeing how the vehicle thinks and reacts may make autonomous travel feel less intimidating.

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CES 2026 SHOWSTOPPERS: 10 GADGETS YOU HAVE TO SEE

Uber confirms autonomous testing is underway after unveiling its robotaxi at CES 2026, marking a major step toward a public launch. (INA FASSBENDER / AFP via Getty Images)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Uber’s robotaxi effort feels more grounded than many past autonomous promises. It combines a known ride-hailing platform a purpose-built electric vehicle and a self-driving system already operating on public roads. If testing continues to progress, driverless Uber rides could move from something new to something normal sooner than many expect.

Would you get into an Uber if there was no driver sitting in the front seat? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Grubhub confirms data breach amid extortion claims

Published

21 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Grubhub confirms data breach amid extortion claims

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Food delivery platform Grubhub has confirmed a recent data breach after unauthorized actors accessed parts of its internal systems.

The disclosure comes as sources tell BleepingComputer the company is now facing extortion demands linked to stolen data.

In a statement to BleepingComputer, Grubhub said it detected and stopped the activity quickly.

“We’re aware of unauthorized individuals who recently downloaded data from certain Grubhub systems,” the company said. “We quickly investigated, stopped the activity, and are taking steps to further increase our security posture.”

Grubhub added that sensitive information, such as financial details or order history, was not affected. However, the company declined to answer follow-up questions about when the breach occurred, whether customer data was involved or if it is actively being extorted.

RANSOMWARE ATTACK EXPOSES SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS AT MAJOR GAS STATION CHAIN

Grubhub confirmed a data breach after unauthorized actors accessed parts of its internal systems, prompting an investigation and heightened security measures. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

What Grubhub has confirmed so far

While details remain limited, Grubhub confirmed several key points. It has brought in a third-party cybersecurity firm and notified law enforcement. Beyond that, the company has stayed largely silent. That lack of detail has raised concern, especially given Grubhub’s recent security history. Just last month, the company was linked to scam emails sent from its own b.grubhub.com subdomain. Those messages promoted a cryptocurrency scam promising large returns on Bitcoin payments. Grubhub said it contained the incident and blocked further unauthorized emails. It did not clarify whether the two events are related.

Sources link the breach to ShinyHunters extortion

According to multiple sources cited by BleepingComputer, the ShinyHunters hacking group is behind the extortion attempt. The group has not publicly commented on the claims and declined to respond when contacted. Sources say the attackers are demanding a Bitcoin payment to prevent the release of stolen data. That data reportedly includes older Salesforce records from a February 2025 breach and newer Zendesk data taken during the most recent intrusion. Grubhub uses Zendesk to run its online customer support system. That platform handles order issues, account access and billing questions, making it a valuable target for attackers.

How stolen credentials may have enabled the attack

Investigators believe the breach may be tied to credentials stolen during earlier Salesloft Drift attacks. In August 2025, threat actors used stolen OAuth tokens from Salesloft’s Salesforce integration to access sensitive systems over a 10-day period. According to a report from Google Threat Intelligence Group, also known as Mandiant, attackers used that stolen data to launch follow-up attacks across multiple platforms. “GTIG observed UNC6395 targeting sensitive credentials such as AWS access keys, passwords and Snowflake-related access tokens,” Google reported. ShinyHunters previously claimed responsibility for that campaign, stating it stole roughly 1.5 billion records from Salesforce environments tied to hundreds of companies.

Why this breach still matters

Even if payment data and order history were not affected, support systems often contain personal details. Names, email addresses and account notes can be enough to fuel phishing attacks or identity scams. More importantly, this incident highlights how older breaches can continue to cause damage long after the initial attack. Stolen credentials that are never rotated remain a powerful entry point for threat actors.

Ways to stay safe after the Grubhub data breach

If you use Grubhub or any online delivery service, a few smart steps can reduce your risk after a breach.

1) Update your password and stop re-use

Start by changing your Grubhub password right away. Make sure you do not reuse that password anywhere else. Reused passwords give attackers an easy path into other accounts. A password manager can help here. It creates strong, unique logins and stores them securely so you do not have to remember them all.

Next, see if your email has been exposed in past breaches. Our No. 1 password manager pick includes a built-in breach scanner that checks whether your email address or passwords have appeared in known leaks. If you discover a match, immediately change any reused passwords and secure those accounts with new, unique credentials.

Check out the best expert-reviewed password managers of 2026 at Cyberguy.com.

ILLINOIS DHS DATA BREACH EXPOSES 700K RESIDENTS’ RECORDS

The food delivery platform says it quickly stopped the intrusion but has not disclosed when the breach occurred or whether customers were targeted. (Leonardo Munoz/VIEWpress)

2) Turn on two-factor authentication

If two-factor authentication (2FA) is available, enable it. This adds a second step when you sign in, such as a code sent to your phone or app. Even if a hacker steals your password, two-factor authentication can stop them from getting in.

3) Watch closely for phishing attempts and use strong antivirus software

Be alert for emails or texts that mention orders, refunds or support issues. Attackers often use stolen support data to make messages feel urgent and real. Do not click links or open attachments unless you are certain they are legitimate. Strong antivirus software can also help block malicious links and downloads before they cause harm.

The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have strong antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe.

Get my picks for the best 2026 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices at Cyberguy.com.

4) Remove your data from people-search sites

Consider using a data removal service to reduce your online footprint. These services help remove your personal details from data broker sites that attackers often use to build profiles. Less exposed data means fewer tools for scammers to exploit.

While no service can guarantee the complete removal of your data from the internet, a data removal service is really a smart choice. They aren’t cheap, and neither is your privacy. These services do all the work for you by actively monitoring and systematically erasing your personal information from hundreds of websites. It’s what gives me peace of mind and has proven to be the most effective way to erase your personal data from the internet. By limiting the information available, you reduce the risk of scammers cross-referencing data from breaches with information they might find on the dark web, making it harder for them to target you.

Check out my top picks for data removal services and get a free scan to find out if your personal information is already out on the web by visiting Cyberguy.com.

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5) Ignore crypto messages using trusted brands

Be skeptical of any cryptocurrency offers tied to familiar companies. Grubhub was previously linked to scam emails promoting crypto schemes, which shows how often attackers abuse trusted names. Legitimate companies do not promise fast returns or pressure you to act immediately.

6) Monitor your Grubhub account and email activity

Check your Grubhub account for anything that looks unfamiliar. Watch for unexpected password reset emails, order confirmations or support messages you did not request. Attackers often test stolen data quietly before making bigger moves.

7) Secure the email linked to your Grubhub account

Your email account is the key to password resets. Change that password and enable two-factor authentication if it is not already on. If attackers control your email, they can regain access even after you change other passwords.

8) Stay alert for delayed scams tied to the breach

Breach data is often reused weeks or months later. Phishing attempts may appear long after headlines fade. Treat any future messages claiming to reference Grubhub support, refunds or account issues with extra caution.

These steps will not undo a breach, but they can limit how attackers exploit stolen information and reduce your risk going forward.

FIBER BROADBAND GIANT INVESTIGATES BREACH AFFECTING 1M USERS

Sources tell BleepingComputer the Grubhub breach is tied to extortion demands involving allegedly stolen customer support data. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Kurt’s key takeaways

Grubhub’s confirmation puts an official stamp on what sources have warned about for weeks. While the company says sensitive data was not affected, unanswered questions remain. As extortion-driven breaches rise, transparency and rapid credential rotation matter more than ever. What stands out most is how past compromises continue to create new risks. When access tokens live too long, attackers do not need to break in again. They simply walk back through an open door.

If companies stay quiet after breaches, how can customers know when it is time to protect themselves? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com.

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