On Black Friday we enter a boom period for online shopping as many online stores are advertising juicy discounts and other promotions. But, sellers aren’t the only ones on the hunt for buyers. Lurking in the shadows, cybercriminals are getting ready to steal personal data and payment details of online shoppers.
Kaspersky advised shoppers to follow these 12 tips this Black Friday period:
- Secure all your devices using trusted security software.
- Make sure you apply security updates to your operating system and applications as soon as they are available.
- Only use secure sites. Look for a URL beginning with ‘HTTPS://’ – that’s ‘S’ for SECURE. Look also for a closed padlock on the web browser’s address bar – by clicking or double-clicking on it you will be able to see details of the site’s security.
- Use a unique password for every online site – use a mixture of letters, numbers and special characters and make sure they’re at least 15 characters long.
- Don’t click on random links in e-mails – it’s better to type in a URL yourself, to avoid the risk of ending up on a phishing site. If a deal seems too good to resist, go directly to the website to find it, rather than click on the link, to be sure.
- Try to stick to familiar sites that you know or have heard of. But even then, you need to take care – criminals often deliberately misspell the name of their fake websites to make it look like a familiar site.
- If you do buy from a new vendor, research it carefully. A good test is to see if they can be contacted if the order goes wrong – look for an e-mail, a phone number, address and return policy. A vendor’s feedback history is another good sign of their honesty and reliability.
- Use extra caution when using your mobile device for online purchases. Shortened URLs, often used because they are phone-friendly, can hide the fact that they lead to a risky site. If you have to make a transaction then and there, switch Wi-Fi off and use mobile data. Otherwise, wait until you are back on a secured connection.
- Avoid using untrusted public Wi-Fi hotspots for confidential transactions like online shopping – public Wi-Fi networks are common places for hackers to sneakily intercept your information.
- Ensure that your children do not have access to your online accounts and make sure they can’t access your credit card and bank information.
- Backup your data regularly to avoid your personal files being lost if you are the target of a cyberattack.
- Keep checking your accounts regularly to make sure you notice any unusual/fraudulent activity straight away.
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