With holiday shopping underway and deals around the corner, it’s a good time to find gifts that will inspire and uplift the entire family. Malicious cyber criminals remain hard at work. This season, remember to follow best security practices to avoid being targeted.
Shoppers are expected to spend approximately $741 billion in sales this year with the recent spike in e-commerce spending. It is necessary to be proactive in ensuring home networks, devices, and accounts are all protected while shopping for holiday items.
Protecting the Network:
Ensure your home WiFi connection is secured and password protected. Avoid public WiFi networks. If you must connect to a public WiFi network, use a virtual private network (VPN) to safeguard against any potential threats.
Protecting Your Devices:
Use advanced antivirus protection software to protect your devices.
Be mindful when clicking on links you receive via email, direct messages or advertisements on the web or social media which could potentially redirect towards a malicious web page.
Web browsers are constantly being updated. Please check Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Brave for any recent updates. This can help protect against any known exposures that an attacker may leverage on a maliciously crafted website.
Implement and utilize a password manager to ensure strong passwords are being employed to prevent cybercriminals from accessing sensitive account data.
Add multi-factor authentication to all accounts that provide this service. A great reference can be found here.
Protecting Online Purchases:
Use a credit card when making purchases online. Credit cards offer greater protection in the event fraud occurs on your account. Do not use a debit card.
Never store credit card details in a web browser, in case the browser becomes compromised. Instead, consider using a Password management system to securely store your credit card details and fill in when needed.
Avoid any Bitcoin deals. While Bitcoin is legitimate, threat actors use this method of payment to avoid detection. There is also not currently any fraud protection available for this payment method.
Please contact BlackCloak if you suspect you have received any of the threats described above or would like any implementation assistance, as we are more than happy to step in.
As always, the BLACKCLOAK Team is here to help. If you have any questions, email us at ask@blackcloak.io.
Thanks!
The BLACKCLOAK Team
We're actively monitoring your devices to ensure you're protected.
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