Shopping online has taken over how we use technology to shop by storm. Many brick-and-mortar stores have now gravitated towards also having an online shopping presence to sell their products. This is due in part to the demands of mobile technology that have changed the ways consumers prefer to shop. We can also thank the 2020 pandemic for pushing more online shopping than ever due to quarantine restrictions.
Although shopping online is now a year-round consumer demand, the holiday shopping season is still the biggest money-maker for retail businesses. It’s an on average than most Americans spend about 500 to 700 dollars a year on the Christmas holiday season for gifts, which can total upwards of $450 billion dollars or more annually. As recently as the 2021 holiday season, retail companies saw record profits during the holiday shopping season with consumers purchasing online over in stores.
The Largest Consumer Data Breach in History
While shopping online is here to stay and will only grow over time, the bigger issue shoppers face is the greater risk of cybersecurity issues like data breaches and identity theft. Let’s take for example one of the biggest data breaches to occur in recent history, the Target data breach. Although this breach occurred during the 2013 holiday shopping season, the ripple effect it made on consumer identity safely is still prevalent today.
What ultimately happened is hackers used a third-party vendor to inject malware into the Target payment systems. Hackers then stole close to 40 billion credit card data and 70 billion consumer information. Over 100 billion people were impacted and Target lost nearly 200 million in the process. There have been other noteworthy data breaches by other retailers since 2013. Yet none as large, costly to the retailer, and with as much as an impact by so many individuals as the Target data breach.
The cybersecurity and IT professional communities learned a great deal from this breach about the domino effect of how one small international cybersecurity issue can explode to disastrous consumer impact. It changed the landscape for millions of companies to accept payments both online and in-store. For example, those chips on all of your credit cards were a direct result of this breach. And thinking about all the steps you have to take now to shop and pay online, that’s because of this breach.
Protecting Yourself While Shopping Online
A data breach can many times directly affect consumers negatively, however, it is often out of the consumer’s control when a large retailer has a breach. With the demand for shopping online consistently increasing, individuals can still face with their own personal forms of data compromises. And let’s not forget as cybercriminals are always looking for the easiest ways to steal your data. Your personal information is like gold to a cybercriminal.
Many people often ask me how they can better protect themselves when shopping online to minimize their risk. One of the biggest steps you can take is making sure your devices and systems are secure. Securing your devices is an important step in a sea of potential cyber-attack risks.
This includes changing passwords regularly, turning on two-factor or multi-factor authentication, and many more. There are also many additional and easy steps that individuals can take to secure their purchases and their personal data so let’s explore 5 simple tips you can take to secure yourself while shopping online.
5 Tips To Secure Your Shopping Online
1. Avoid using your debit card or bank account for shopping online.
Shopping online is now the most common and convenient way to shop nowadays. We love living in our little Amazon prime convenience type of world, but convenience comes at a cost. Since many of our debit cards are tied directly to our personal bank accounts this can make you at a greater risk of your personal account data being stolen. Most banks have a much longer and at times more rigorous fraud reporting process in the event of your debit card being compromised than a credit card.
Having funds stolen from your personal bank account directly has a different reporting process than if they charged something to your credit card. Normally, it goes beyond just canceling your card and issuing a new one. It can be far more time-consuming with needing to completely change your account numbers in more severe account identity theft cases. It can take up to weeks in order to get the money that was taken from your account back.
When I personally went through this issue back in 2017, it took upwards of 2 to 3 weeks at least to see my account refunded. Hackers stole over $200 from my account in minutes yet it took weeks, a police report, and a time-consuming in-person visit to the bank to rectify it. And if you are like how I was, living paycheck to paycheck, $300+ is a lot of money to have stolen from your only bank account.
Nowadays, many credit card companies nowadays offer free identity and account protection with their cards. Also, the process to report and revert fraud charges is more simple than ever. You can report them directly online with your credit card company or call to report fraudulent charges. Credit card companies also offer zero liability for you if your card is fraudulently charged.
2. Double check website addresses when shopping online
This is a big one that many people can easily miss the mark on. Most legitimate retailers should have an HTTPS format browsing to their websites and have their payment systems processed through an HTTPS format. If you are manually typing in the web address, make sure it is correct. Websites can be spoofed by cybercriminals for even one letter or number off of their true website address.
You may think that it could look like you are shopping on a legitimate site but it could be a spoof and if you purchase and pay through the fake site, then you just handed your information right over to cybercriminals. Also, there are countless apps on google chrome and other browsers that can check website legitimacy for you too.
3. A deal too good to be true.
Email and social media are always easy targets for “fake” promotions or purchases that offer you such a steep discount on items that you may or may not be looking to purchase. Scammers will email you offering steeply discounted deals or a lot of free items for purchase. Spam email boxes don’t always catch true spam emails because cybercriminals are getting smarter about legitimizing their malicious emails.
Furthermore, pay attention to the emails or messages you receive with links attached. If you are on a computer, hover over the link to see if it matches what is in the email, if it doesn’t it’s a phishing attempt to direct you to a malicious link. Do your research before clicking, if it sounds too good of a deal to be true, it probably is!
4. Limit your public Wi-Fi usage.
As much as we all love free and Public Wi-Fi, not all things free are necessarily free. Free Wi-Fi can sometimes come at a cost. Public Wi-Fi hotspots can sometimes also be a hacker’s paradise. Most public Wi-Fi’s aren’t secured and it can be a prime for the picking for a cybercriminal. Avoid logging into personally identifiable sites like any of your payment accounts or bank accounts. Also, I highly recommend using a VPN when utilizing public Wi-Fi hotspots. Although, it has been said VPNs are not foolproof but I believe that they at least provide a buffer for your devices on a public hotspot.
5. Use two-Factor authentication when possible.
When available, two-factor or multi-factor authentication is great. For example, many retailers that use Shopify have two-factor authentication as an option when you sign in to your account. Most of the retailers I shop from that use Shopify, my account auto-texts a unique code to my phone to confirm my identity before I can access my account. It is also not 100% foolproof like VPNs, but as stated above, it can be an extra step making it more difficult for cybercriminals to hack your account and steal your information.
Final Remarks on Shopping Online Securely
Shopping online is here to stay, and cybercriminals will always work diligently to want your information for their own financial gain.
Keep in mind, that everything online is never going to be 100% secure. When you actively ensure you take your own personal security precautions when shopping online and utilize secure devices to make your purchases, it helps further protect your information from cybercriminals.