As the holiday shopping season kicks off with Cyber Monday, this is a prime opportunity for hackers to sneak in and take your precious money. With all the advertisements and great deals, hackers are seeing dollar signs in their eyes at all the potential victims.
To avoid being fooled follow these steps:
- DO NOT CLICK ON ANY EMAIL ADVERTISEMENTS (THEY ARE OFTEN JUST CLICK BAIT) EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT, SEE 2 BELOW.
- ONLY GO TO TRUSTED SITES DIRECTLY VIA YOUR WEB BROWSER (FIREFOX IS PROBABLY THE BEST FOR NOT USING TRACKING SOFTWARE).
- WHEN GOOGLE SEARCHING, MAKE SURE THE SITE HAS A GREEN CHECK MARK INDICATING A GOOGLE CERTIFIED SITE.
- DO NOT CLICK ON SOCIAL MEDIA DEALS OF THE DAY. THEY ARE OFTEN FICTITIOUS AND ONLY INTENDED TO STEAL YOUR PASSWORDS (YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO LOG INTO FACEBOOK AGAIN IF YOU ARE ALREADY LOGGED IN).
Take this time to review your cyber policy and guidelines. Don’t let the holiday shopping rush make you complacent in your ability to protect yourself from all the online thieves.