It’s no surprise that Canadians are preparing for the biggest holiday shopping event of the year. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday quickly approaching and online shopping at an all time high, it also means that cybercriminals are expected to be out in full force.
Canadians are no strangers to a great online deal, and so Trend Micro is shedding light on what online shoppers can do to protect their personal information. Below are the top 7 tips for avoiding cyber threats this shopping season.
Tips for Safe Online Shopping:
- Check any email coming from banks that request verification.
- Enable multi-factor authentication (2FA) for your online accounts and enable your credit card’s one-time password (OTP) feature.
- Keep your e-receipts and compare them with your credit card statements.
- Avoid connecting mobile devices to unsecure public networks.
- Choose retailer sites with buyer protection.
- When using voice-enabled assistants, monitor your publicly posted Personally identifiable Information (PII), these can be used as credentials to access IoT devices.
- Look for the verifier symbols of brands and shops, especially when visiting “so-called” business pages on social media, before interacting, shopping, or providing information.
There is also a blog post available called When Cybercriminals Hitch On Your Holiday Spending: Online Shopping Trends and Threats that you should have a look at.
Guest Post: NordVPN Discusses Phishing During Holiday Shopping Season And How To Stay Safe
Posted in Commentary with tags NordVPN on November 23, 2018 by itnerdThe busiest shopping season is here, and cybercriminals are just as busy as bargain hunters.With the revenues from holiday sales online increasing year on year, the level of reported internet scams and other forms of crime is rising as well.
One of the biggest threats during the shopping season is online phishing. Phishing victims usually receive emails that look likemessages from legitimate online vendors, such as Amazon.Such emailsask to click on a link, whichmay, in turn, ask to submit theuser’s personal information.
“Unsuspecting shoppers may believe they are on their vendor’s website, while they are actually on a fake sitedesigned to extract their personal information,” said Ruby Gonzalez, Communications Director at NordVPN, a VPN service provider.
“Even thoughhackers are getting more and moresophisticated, it’s still possibleto recognize that you are visiting a fake site. Be especially cautious if you have clicked on alink or button received through an email – a well-designed phishing email may feature the logo and the general look of your favorite brand. It may even lead you to a sitethat looks like the real one. ”
The truth is, if a person is untrained in cybersecurity, a phishing email can easily lead themto sharesensitive information willingly and expose themselves to hackers. NordVPN offers easy online security tips to avoid phishing attacks and stay safe online.
Tips for spotting a phishing email:
1. Check thesender’s address. Don’t just trust the display name – pay attention to the email address. If the domain looks suspicious (e.g., info@secure.apple.com), don’t open the email.
2. Look for spelling and grammar mistakes. Serious companies don’t usually send out emails with bad grammar and basic spelling mistakes.
3. Take a look at the greeting. Your bank or another legitimate institution would often address you with your full name. If you see a vague “Dear user” instead, remain vigilant.
4. Don’t click on links– instead, hover your mouse on the button to see the destination link. Check if it looks legitimate and, especially, if it contains the “https”part to indicate a secure connection.
5.When in doubt, contact your bank or other institution over the phone or alternative email address and ask to confirm if the email is legitimate.
For additional safety, use a VPN. Using a VPN when browsing can protect you against malware and phishing that targets online access points.
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