Christmas, it’s a time for loved ones, good food, warm fires, presents and merriment. It’s undoubtedly one of the busiest times of the year, what with the flurry of activity both online and offline throughout the festive period.
Online shopping is a brilliant way to get all your gifts ordered and delivered with just a click of a button without having to brave the busy shopping centres.
But how can you ensure that you’re staying safe whilst online shopping, and prevent any hackers from ruining your festive spirit?
Our Operations Director Andy Viner had the pleasure of being invited onto the mid-morning show on BBC Radio Leicester on the 4th December. He discussed online shopping and how to keep you and your business safe during the festive period.
IF YOU MISSED IT DON’T WORRY YOU CAN LISTEN TO HIS INTERVIEW BELOW:
Here’s our handy tips for staying safe whilst shopping online:
- Use a credit card as your payment method
- Credit cards can be a safer option for online shopping as they have spending limits, whereas debit cards do not.
- Make sure to use a credit card with a low spending limit for online purchases, this will help further limit the damage that could be caused.
- If a fraudulent transaction is made using your credit card you can dispute the charges and the card company has to reimburse you.
- Check your card statements regularly
- Check your card statements frequently to ensure that all the transactions carried out were authorised by you, and no unknown or fraudulent charges have been made.
- If you spot anything unusual report it to your bank or credit card company immediately.
- Have a good up to date anti-virus software installed
- Good anti-virus software should protect you from a whole host of viruses, worms and other potential threats that could jeopardise your devices security and “health” whilst online.
- Keep apps, browsers and software up to date
- It’s not enough to just have apps, browsers and software’s installed you must make sure to regularly update them.
- The regular updates released by developers make it more secure and adapt to new potential threats.
- Without regularly updating you could be vulnerable to the latest viruses and hacking techniques, which unfortunately are evolving constantly.
- Use strong passwords and change them regularly
- Many people have one or two general passwords that they use for all their accounts.
- Imagine a chain of dominoes, all it takes is one to be knocked over and they will all fall down. The same goes for your password security if you use the same password across multiple accounts.
- It poses a massive security risk if one account is hacked, as a hacker would then be able to access all your other accounts using the password they have cracked
- For more tips on how to make sure your password is secure click here
- Don’t use public wi-fi to shop
- Most wi-fi hotspots do not encrypt your data, so any hacker could easily access your personal data and any information you share whilst using the internet.
- Don’t share or access any personal information whilst using public wi-fi, wait until you can access a secure wi-fi network like your home wi-fi.
- Only purchase from known or reputable vendors
- Make sure to start your search at a trusted site.
- Simply typing product details into google may produce some enticing deals but could easily lead you to scam sites.
- If you know and trust the site you are searching on then you are much less likely to fall victim to scammers.
- Make sure the website uses HTTPS in the URL not HTTP
- An SSL Certificate is an important part of a website’s security protection.
- SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is a standard security protocol for establishing an encrypted session between a server and a web browser.
- This link ensures that all data exchanged between the browser and the server remains secure and protected from any external hostile attacks.
- For more info click here to view our SSL certificate blog post
- Don’t click on links in emails
- Every day hackers and fraudsters send millions of fraudulent emails to millions of email inboxes worldwide.
- Whilst some of these emails are obvious frauds, others can be much harder to spot especially in the run up to Christmas when you’re receiving emails confirming orders and delivery’s, etc. regularly.
- Click here for our handy tips on how to spot a fraudulent email
- Trust your instincts
- If your gut instinct is telling you something isn’t quite right at anytime during an online shopping experience, just end the transaction and leave the site.
- They may be asking for too much personal information, have a strange website address or are offering deals that are just too good to be true.
- You might hate missing out on such a good deal, but remember if it’s too good to be true it probably is.
- The loss of time and money that a fraudulent payment would bring far outweighs the benefits of any amazing deal.
If you need any expert help or advice on the best ways to ensure both you and your business is protected from online threats, contact us today.