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Posts

Byte-Size Tech: Essential Tips for Safer Online Shopping

April 2, 2021/in Data Security, How To, Video /by Marcia Spicer

 

HTTPS? SSL? Targot.com? What about those pop-up businesses that advertise on social media? Libby Powers and Marcia Spicer of Anderson Technologies break down some essential tips and potential problems to watch out for when shopping online. If you’re worried that your shopping or surfing habits have compromised your business, contact Anderson Technologies today.

 

Related Reading

  • 8 Steps to Safe(r) Online Shopping
  • How to Identify Phishing and BEC Scam Emails
  • Opting Out: Keeping Your Personal Data Private
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Transcript

Libby Powers: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Byte-Size Tech. I want to introduce you to Marcia. Marcia is a team member that actually wears a lot of hats here at Anderson Technologies. In addition to being a member of our Archival team, she also helps build content for our website. In that role she’s done a lot of reading on cybersecurity scams, privacy, and online safety. I actually asked Marcia to come on Byte-Size Tech to talk to you about something everybody does these days: online shopping. Marcia?

Marcia Spicer: Hi, Libby. Online shopping isn’t something that we deal with on a regular basis at Anderson Technologies. That tends to fall outside of our sphere. But it is something that could affect your data privacy and could lead to a business breach. With so much of our lives shifting more and more online in the past year, that’s not likely to go away, it’s probably a good time to review a couple of tips. If you don’t do your shopping online, you might want to watch anyway, because some of these tips can apply to just about anything that you do online, so there will be a takeaway for you.

Libby Powers: Awesome. What do you have for us then? I’m excited to learn this.

Marcia Spicer: Okay, I’m sure you’ve got some tried and true shopping websites that you know, and you trust their name brands. You’ve had great experiences with them, but maybe you’re thinking about making a purchase from a new site for the first time. When you’re in that situation, it’s time to slow down. There are a couple things to look at.

First, you want to look at the website address. There are two big things to look for here. The first step is HTTPS. If you click on the address bar—it’s at the top of your web browser—you should be able to see the full address of the website that you’re on. This will either begin with an HTTP or an HTTPS. The HTTPS is what you want. This is a security standard that means that the site has SSL encryption installed.

Libby Powers: Oh, what’s SSL encryption?

Marcia Spicer: SSL encryption means that any information that you submit to the site—say, your credit card, for example, or your address, phone number—when you submit that to the website, it’s encrypted, or encoded, so that criminals that might be trying to eavesdrop on your traffic or gain access to the website, they can’t see that data and they can’t steal it.

Libby Powers: Okay, well, that’s a great tip. So look for HTTPS at the very beginning of the website, right?

Marcia Spicer: Yes.

Libby Powers: Well, what else do you have now?

Marcia Spicer: While you’re looking at your website address, you’ll want to carefully look at the whole address. You probably know what site you want to be on, and you want to make sure that that address matches that site. It can be something super close, but sometimes there is just a little bit off. Maybe you’re thinking you want to be at Target.com, and when you look at that website address, you see “Targot.com” or “Target.ra” or something that might not be the actual website. Something’s fishy.

Then there’s another type of website that’s sketch for shopping. These fun niche products pop up all the time on social media. I see them on Instagram and Facebook, I’ve got little kids, they know their audience. I saw this adorable little octopus stuffed animal, and I thought my daughter would just die. When I clicked through on the website…. Everything looked legit in the ad, but when I clicked through, I noticed that the octopus plush was the only thing they were selling. Sure, it was in different colors, but that was their only product. That’s the only thing that business did. So I had a little bit of doubt there.

Libby Powers: Hesitation?

Marcia Spicer: It’s time to look a little bit closer. As I’m kind of scrolling through the website, there’s messages popping up and throughout the website that says “Buy now! We’re almost sold out! There’s none left! We’re having a sale and you need to buy right now!” And for a lot of people, I think that would be like, “Oh yes, I’ve got to take advantage of this deal.” For me, since I’ve done so much reading, I took it as, “Hang on. They’re trying to get me to act quickly and not look closely.”

Libby Powers: To not pay attention, yeah.

Marcia Spicer: Right. If you do end up making a purchase from a shady site like this, you can risk having your data stolen. A lot of people never receive their package, or they receive something that’s a super cheap knockoff that doesn’t look anything like what they wanted to buy. They’re pop-up businesses, basically. They make their money from drop-shipping bad products from China [or] from other countries, the company can disappear overnight, you can’t make returns, you’re not going get a refund, you’re probably not going to be able to contact customer service—all around just not a great experience for you. Sometimes you can even look up the same product on a site you do trust or just a search engine, and you can find something really similar but it’s from a trusted site.

That octopus plushie? I did a quick search for it, and I found the exact same product on a site that I used before. It had a lower price, it had normal shipping rates, it wasn’t anything while that they were trying to railroad me for money, there was none of the “You’ve got to buy it right this second” messaging, so I felt a lot safer going through with that purchase.

Libby Powers: You know, something that you say is the “Buy now” messaging, and I think you’re spot on with that, because it’s psychological for people to feel like they’re missing out on something. And those ads are everywhere: They’re on Facebook, they’re on LinkedIn, they’re on every social media platform you could think of. I think of the phrase “Too good to be true.” That’s such an important thing to have in mind when we do anything online.

Marcia Spicer: Exactly. And that message is going to apply to any site that you visit. When you’re looking for that HTTPS, know that that S, that SSL encoding, is standard. Every website you visit should have that HTTPS at the beginning. And even if you think you’re where you want to be, take a moment to double check, because a lot of times those promises of things that are too good to be true are so tempting that we just got to pump the brakes just a little bit and take a moment to look at the surroundings online.

Libby Powers: I really appreciate you sharing these tips. I think you probably have more tips that you could share because online…everything is online, our entire lives are online. What we can do to protect our information is really important. We’ve got to do our due diligence.

Marcia Spicer: That’s so true. I’ve got more tips if you’ll have me back for more videos.

Libby Powers: Of course. And if you’re concerned that dodgy online shopping habits have given access to the wrong people, then give us a call. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

Marcia Spicer: Bye.

Safe Online Shopping Ecommerce

8 Steps to Safe(r) Online Shopping

March 1, 2017/in Data Security, How To /by Anderson Technologies

Sure, e-commerce sites are convenient, but more and more frequently they are teeming with cyber threats that could compromise your financial information, identity, or even your business. Here’s what you can do to protect yourself.

Online sales in the U.S. are projected to reach $523 billion by 2020, according to a report by Forrester Research. In fact, many Americans are buying more online than in-store, and retailers aren’t the only ones taking notice. Criminals see the e-commerce boom as an opportunity for payment fraud, identity theft, and other cyber crimes.

Of every $100 spent online, $4.79 is at risk of a fraud attack, according to The Global Fraud Index, a PYMNTS and Forter collaboration. It’s important to remember cyber criminals don’t just acquire data by targeting you personally. They hack businesses in hopes of infiltrating their databases to steal customer information. If you’ve created an account with a website that is compromised, your information is at risk, even if you haven’t shopped there in months!

Most retailers take precautions to provide their customers with safer online shopping experiences, but the onus is also on the individual. These tips will help you identify secure e-commerce sites, protect your personal information, and at least mitigate the damage should you fall victim to a cyber criminal’s attack.

  1. Only Shop at Sites with “HTTPS” URLs at Checkout

HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and indicates that the business has an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. This certificate requires the vendor go through a validation process. Once installed SSL and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are used to secure sensitive online transactions—such as credit card purchases, financial data transfers, account logins, and other browsing activities requiring a heightened level of security. The data you share with a site’s web servers is encrypted in transit, and thus much harder for hackers to exploit.

  1. Assess the Site’s Legitimacy

Before sharing any personal information, research the site’s return policy, social media presence, and online reviews. Check that it has a Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and detailed contact information. If anything seems suspicious, leave the site immediately.

  1. Create a Separate Email for Online Shopping

Do not provide e-commerce sites with your personal or business email address. Instead, create an account you use solely for online shopping. You can set up your accounts so all emails forward into a single inbox, but limit how often you hand out your primary email addresses.

  1. Create Unique Logins and Passwords for Every Vendor

Password management is an important component of safer online shopping yet it is often overlooked. Should a cyber criminal gain access to one of your accounts, you want the damage to end there. Do not use the same login and password for everything. Create complicated passwords that cannot be easily guessed. Password management applications, such as LastPass, are invaluable tools to help automate this.

  1. Use a Dedicated Credit Card for Online Shopping

Most credit card companies offer some fraud guarantees and will work with you if your information is stolen. Additionally, consider using PayPal, which goes to great lengths to keep its customers secure.

  1. Do Not Save Your Payment Information

Sure, you’ll add a few seconds to future checkouts, but it is worth it? Should a criminal infiltrate an e-commerce platform at least you won’t be giving them your credit card number on a silver platter. Also, refrain from saving passwords on your browser and clear your history routinely.

  1. Delete Accounts You No Longer Use

Remember, even if you haven’t visited the e-retailer in months, your information could still be obtained by a criminal who hacks the site. By removing accounts from sites you no longer frequent, you’ll help keep your personal information safe.

  1. Be Wary of Promotional Emails

Cyber criminals use email as a means of spreading malware and launching spear phishing scams. If you receive an email from a retailer that looks too good to be true, visit the site directly to confirm the information is valid. Always verify the email address of the sender. If everything seems above-board, hover over the link before clicking it, which will allow you to review the URL. Be sure to do so carefully, as crooks often use domain names that look similar to reputable sites.

E-commerce is a part of life, but we can’t take our cyber security for granted. No business owner wants to encourage personal purchases on the job, but it is worth sharing best practices for safer online shopping to help keep your employees, and your business, secure.

Anderson Technologies is a St. Louis IT consulting company that helps small businesses educate their employees about effective cyber security practices. For more information on our cyber security training services, email info@andersontech.com or call 314.394.3001 and check out our free ebook, An Employee’s Guide to Preventing Business Cyber Crime.

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