If you’re anything like me, you will complete most of your holiday shopping from the comfort of your own home, laptop in hand, attempting to avoid the craziness of department stores and mall parking lots. Then, a week or so before the big day, you’ll realize that you neglected to order some key gifts and scramble to pick them up in-store.
Given that most of us will be shopping online or in-store this holiday season, cybercriminals will look to take advantage of those who are uninformed, unaware and not prepared to defend their sensitive information. In order to protect your Personally Identifiable Information (PII), it is critical to understand several basic shopping risks and how to mitigate them:
- Scan your PC for viruses and malware before using it for online shopping. You may have picked up a “bug” and not noticed. Some of these infections will help cybercriminals record your keystrokes or access your PC remotely.
- Update your smartphone, tablet and computer to ensure it is running the latest software and vulnerability patches.
- Dip, don’t swipe. When shopping in-store with your credit card, make sure you’re only paying with a card equipped with an EMV chip. In addition, only use the card if the vendor accepts dipping your card into the machine. The swipe method utilizes the magnetic strip on the back of the card and is not secure by today’s standards.
- Avoid purchasing from unsecured websites. If the site is secure, the website’s address will be prefaced by HTTPS://. An unsecured site will lack the “s” and simply show, HTTP://.
- Create an email address specifically for electronic receipts and shipment notification to limit what information is compromised if a vendor suffers a cyber breach and your account information is made public.
- Create varying passwords for online websites/accounts. If you use the same password for all accounts and one of those sites is hacked, all of your other accounts are then at risk.
- Avoid clicking links to great deals received in an email or posted on social media sites. Cybercriminals cast a wide net with sophisticated “phishing” scams in order to get unsuspecting shoppers to visit a false website and enter their payment information. Always type the vendor’s website URL directly into the address bar of your browser.
- Never shop while connected to public Wi-Fi. It may seem convenient to get some holiday shopping done while waiting for your beverage in a coffee shop, but those networks are easily hacked, exposing your private information.
Network security firm, Tenable, noted that the holiday shopping season will “generate an estimated $5.4 billion windfall for cybercriminals!” Following some of the basic tips above will help keep you from contributing to that horrendous statistic.
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