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More Internet Tips for Cyber Monday And Beyond
They say that you can never have too much good advice. So in addition to the excellent set of Safe Holiday Shopping Tips we provided last week, here are three more simple rules of the road for safe and worry-free online experience this holiday season.
1. You can do more online and through mobile; just don’t do it differently. Doing more of what you normally do isn’t as much a risk as doing different things than you normally do. Try not to change your actual behavior, even though you’re doing more shopping and browsing online and through mobile. The less you stray from your normal habits, then the less likely you’ll encounter malicious sites, apps, or messages, and the less you’ll fall victim to fraud and other scams.
2. Scrutinize unusual messages. Be wary when receiving unsolicited or odd messages – even from people you know – and be especially wary if you do decide to act on them. Just like email viruses used to troll your address books, today’s malware will access your social networks. An odd message through your social network may well mean that your friend has been hacked. There will be plenty of scams and attacks that purport to be great last-minute deals, fake holiday cards that ask you to forward along to all your Facebook friends, confirmations or verifications for transactions you never made, and even fake warning messages about scams to avoid. All of these are just different attempts to get you to click on a link.
3. Don’t log in on a page you got to from an outside link. If a message takes you to a login page for a service that you use, look closely at the URL before entering your credentials. Better yet: just go to the site using your bookmarks or standard “www.xyz.com” address rather than signing in on the page you got to from a link.
Safe Holiday Shopping Tips
Black Friday offers deep discounts and enticing deals, but holiday shoppers who venture out into the cold, dark night must have brave hearts, steely resolve, and pointed elbows. Far away from the crowds of frenzied shoppers, those of us who prefer to shop online, wearing our fluffy bathrobes and drinking hot chocolate, face our own set of dangers.
Here are some online shopping tips to help you remain safe and secure:
Choosing the Merchant
- Stick with what you know – Use websites that you know are legitimate. If you visit an unfamiliar one, check the avast! WebRep rating to make sure it’s trustworthy. A quick search for reviews, complaints, or scams related to the site will help you too.
- Make sure the site is secure – Look for the closed padlock icon on your browser’s address bar or a URL address that begins with shttp or https. This indicates that the purchase is encrypted or secured. Read more…
24M Zappos shoe buyers’ accounts get hacked
Just received cool new suede Pumas from Zappos last week, and this week I received an email explaining that my account was breached.
Turns out that the popular online shoe and clothing retailer was attacked by cybercriminals who gained access to parts of the internal network through one of the servers in Kentucky. One Sunday, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Amazon-owned Zappos wrote on the company blog that 24+ million customers were affected, but critical credit card and other payment data was not affected or accessed. The hackers failed to get payment card numbers, because that data is encrypted, as required by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.
The company sent an email to every one of their customers explaining the situation including what information was stolen: Customer name, email address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of customers’ credit card number, and/or cryptographically scrambled passwords.
Zappos took swift action by expiring and resetting passwords, and they set up a password change webpage for customers to create new ones. “We also recommend that you change your password on any other web site where you use the same or a similar password,” the email sent to affected customers states.
As a result of stolen credentials, phishing attacks that try to steal sensitive information like social security numbers or lead you to a website that attempts to install a virus, are more likely. “As always, please remember that Zappos.com will never ask you for personal or account information in an e-mail,” the blog statement says. “Please exercise caution if you receive any emails or phone calls that ask for personal information or direct you to a web site where you are asked to provide personal information.”
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Survival Tips for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day of the year, starts at midnight November 25th with mega-sales running throughout the weekend. Cyber Monday, the online retail equivalent to Black Friday, is the time when many consumers, who didn’t want to fight the crowds over Thanksgiving weekend or failed to find what they were looking for, shop online that Monday from home or work.
“For our US friends especially, this weekend is when retailers, offline and online, offer the best deals of the year,” said Jindrich Kubec, senior virus analyst at the AVAST Virus Lab. “It’s also when cybercriminals become hyperactive with scams and fraudulent offers.”
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