Security Risks grow during Cyber Monday. How to keep yourself safe from cyber attackers this Hacking Season?
This year’s Cyber Monday will occur on November 29th, 2021. As Cyber Monday approaches, businesses are preparing for a holiday season that is expected to generate $214 billion in e-commerce sales.
However, cyber-criminals are also active in this area and are looking for ways to make money. During this time, hackers try to defraud naive internet users looking for a “good deal” by taking advantage of the many offers available on the internet. Here are a few pointers from Acmetek to keep internet promotions from becoming a nightmare!
According to the National Retail Federation’s “Thanksgiving Weekend Expectations poll,” 95.5 million Americans are expected to take advantage of big discounts on Friday, and the shopping boom has spread across the Atlantic to Europe as well.
According to Kantar Retail, 83 percent of British and 40% of French customers are aware of the “holiday” of Black Friday, compared to 99 percent of American shoppers.
There’s a perfect storm of cyber vulnerability that attackers are looking to take advantage of, with consumers spending over $300 on average, longer shopping hours, and increasing mobile commerce.
Consumers are, to some extent, aware of the threats. Two-thirds of buyers are concerned that their personal information will be stolen as a result of buying online. Another question is whether they will take the required safeguards.
Tips to follow on this cyber Monday
The following are the precautionary steps to follow in order to avoid being a victim of fraud:
Be wary of overly generous offers.
When a promotion appears to be much more fascinating than everywhere else, you should treat it as a suspect in principle and undertake a minimum amount of research before ordering. It is also desirable to visit the websites of well-known distributors or traders. Buyers must also pay attention to details such as shipping costs and any customs fees, as well as delivery dates.
Multi-factor Authentication
Multi-factor authentication, according to Microsoft, stops roughly 99 percent of application account attacks. The majority of today’s retail attacks go for the data wherever it is kept. To run their enterprises, many companies rely on third-party software.
When hackers attempt to obtain access to a network to steal information, these applications are high on their list of targets. As a result, businesses must have suitable information security policies in place to ensure that data access is appropriately restricted.
This entails implementing access control protocols that specify who has and does not have access to data, hence minimizing the number of attack vectors. It also entails the use of multi-factor authentication (MFA) to ensure that accounts are properly secured.
Plan to enable PKI
Managed PKI is a unique solution for authenticating and encrypting all your users, devices, emails, documents, networks, and IoT devices. Seamless integration with the business application is possible with Acmetek’s managed PKI solutions.
Protect your banking data and personal information
If in doubt, do not submit your personal or banking data too quickly, even if it means missing out on a great bargain. Otherwise, you risk identity theft, fraudulent banking transactions, and other serious consequences.
Use a strong and different password for each app or website.
In the United States, almost half of the population reuses their passwords for longer than they should. There’s a strong probability that the Dark Web has your personal information. This is the only way to ensure that if your password is stolen on one site, it will not be used to get access to your other computers.
Check the legitimacy and actuality of the sites where you will be making your purchases.
Make sure you’re not on a phony replica of an official website or a site developed specifically for the aim of deceiving you by promising business you won’t find anywhere else. Check the site address carefully because the name of the official site can sometimes differ by a single character.
When confronted with an unfamiliar site, using a search engine to look up its name and reading the reviews will save you a lot of heartache.
Conclusion
Cybercriminals use fake promotional ads, fake official merchant websites, fake e-commerce sites created just for the occasion, phishing via SMS, phone, or email, and ransomware attacks to deceive their victims into making a purchase, stealing their personal or banking data, or even holding them to ransom.
Customers can avoid potential risk, including those clarified above, to make it more difficult for attackers to focus on their personal and financial data on cyber Monday. However, it doesn’t mean the above steps can only assist organizations with securing themselves around the Christmas season but it is our responsibility to follow the tips and be safe from these cyber attacks.
