Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Tips for secure online and mobile shopping

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday are imminent. More shoppers are choosing to make purchases online or via mobile devices. Some shoppers are even getting started on Thursday. Whatever day you decide to go bargain hunting, here are some tips for online and mobile shopping.

Use a secure Wi-Fi connection. If you're on a public Internet connection, you risk exposing your personal information to nefarious hackers lurking on the same network.

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Shop on websites you know and trust. If you're on a fence about a site you've never seen, follow your instincts. Try to Google the name of the retailer to see if a scam has been reported or bad reviews have been posted online.

Update your anti-virus software. According to Norton's 2012 cybercrime report, 1.5 million people are victims of cybercrime everyday. And the global cost of consumer cybercrime is $110 billion annually. Using an anti-virus software will at least give shoppers an added level of security.

The security software company Trend Micro suggests shoppers look for Web addresses that use a HTTPS URL. The "S" stands for secure and adds a level of protection. Another tip is to check to see if the payment site's URL changes. If it does, think twice about entering sensitive data online.

Keep track of who is shopping in your household. If you allow your kids to use your credit or debit card to shop, make sure they understand the importance of securing sensitive information and only using trusted sites.

Mobile security is important, too. According to brand agency Digitas, 28 percent of smartphone or tablet-owning adults plan to shop with mobile devices on Thanksgiving Day. Some are even starting to coin the day "Mobile Thursday."

Among some risky mobile phone behavior, Norton reports 67 percent of people check emails on unsecure Wi-Fi connections, 63 percent access social networks, 31 percent shop online and 24 percent access their bank accounts.

When in doubt, it may be worth the extra effort to check to see if a website is trustworthy to ensure a secure shopping experience.

[needtoknow5-2009]

We have done all of our shopping online the past 5 years and used a website called Pilewire.com for the past three. They only work with established retailers an etaiers and look for the best bargains on highly-rated products, like netbooks, tablets and eBook readers and put everything on one website. Most things ship for free. I love it.

[hypnotoad72]

Everyone has to do their part, but the supply-side institutions really should invest in their own companies - users of their products and services should not be expected to carry the entire burden. That's unrealistic, and it's the servers the institutions use that are the proverbial pots at the end of the rainbow.

And if an unjailbroken iPhone can be be hacked without the user's knowledge, and note those things don't have security protocols you can add...

[cloud_surfer]

Thanks for the article. We ALL need to be more proactive about our personal account security. In this day and age we need to take responsibility of our info. If you don't trust the site don't use it. . But one thing that can't be stressed enough is taking advantage of the 2FA (2-Factor Authentication). Although it's been around for a while, not enough sites are offering and promoting this option. And the even sadder fact is there are millions of people who are not taking advantage of this awesome functionality that is being offered to them by several sites. I really hope people and companies wake-up to the need to kick this complacent attitude about authentication and passwords. Take advantage of the 2FA which allows us to telesign into our accounts. I know some will claim this make things more complicated, but the slight inconvenience each time you log in is worth the confidence of knowing your info is secure. This should be a prerequisite to any system that wants to promote itself as being secure.