While businesses are preparing for the busiest shopping season of the year and the consumers are waiting for the best online deals. Hackers and attackers too are prepping to get their hands on these businesses. It makes it increasingly important that consumers practice due to diligence while online shopping. Traversing the links, buying the products from the unsecured website and using personally identifiable information where it is not needed has put you on the higher risk of the information being compromised. Cyber Monday is one of the heaviest online shopping days of the year, Thanksgiving, Black Friday; the year-end sale is one of the leading shopping days for online shopping.
Cybersecurity is one of the key concern during the online holiday shopping season as consumers increasingly move towards shopping online, majorly on mobile devices. We suggest the below-mentioned steps to ensure safe online holiday shopping.
- Limit personally identifiable Information: While signing up for the email lists, promotional discount you have to make sure you provide the least amount of information. Most of the online store accounts require a first name, last name, email address, but they might also the fields like age, date of birth and contact number. If not required you should not provide this information as this makes it easier for hackers to learn more about the individuals and make them fall prey.
- Use secure Websites: Shopping on the unsecured website make these malicious hackers steal your data. You should check whether the HTTPS is there in the URL? Websites that use the HTTPS encrypt the data transferred between your browser and the website. This keeps your data confidential from the malicious hackers and prevents hackers from modifying your data without your knowledge.
- Do not use Public Wifi: While connecting to the public WiFI while online shopping, making a purchase or downloading the coupon, it can put your data at greater risk. Public WiFi is generally not password protected and cannot protect your information. The malicious hacker often uses and utilize public WiFi especially in crowded areas like airports and malls. Instead of using public WiFi, opt to use your mobile data and network.
- Change your passwords frequently: It is very critical for the consumers to regulate and change their passwords, especially during the holiday season. Using the same password for emails, store accounts, and bank accounts could make your fall prey of being hacked.
- Monitor your card payments: With due diligence, you should monitor your debit and credit card payments crucially during the holiday seasons. You can implement best practices for protecting your data as possible there are no guarantees that your data can be compromised with the hackers. You should set up the alert system for your mobile and emails often when you make the transaction through your banks. By regularly monitoring your credit and debit card payment, you will be more likely to identify and alert your bank about the suspicious activity.
Do not let the malicious hackers make your holiday shopping experience more terrible. You have to ensure that you are maintaining the best practices for safe online holiday shopping. It is better late than never and hence be cautious to implement these best practices mentioned above to be safe from the hackers and attackers.
