The BOHH Breakdown, Part 14: How to Stay Cyber Safe During the Christmas Holiday Shopping Season

In our last post, we shared what the team at BOHH Labs believes will be the hot topics in 2018. Today, we offer tips for individuals to stay safe as they begin their holiday shopping this season.

We have all heard the stories: people losing money in a cyber scam, a bankcard that has had to be replaced because it has been compromised, and many other ways that simply swiping our cards this holiday season put our finances at risk. So, with the holidays right around the corner, here are a few steps to protect yourself while you are out shopping for your near and dear:

• Check for encryption on websites when shopping online. Look for a small lock icon somewhere on your browser and URLs that begin with “https:” This means the site is secured and your data is encrypted.
• Make sure your security software is up-to-date, regardless of if you are using a computer or mobile device.
• Phishing attacks are more frequent than ever and are projected to be one of the top methods for cybercriminals to carry out scams this season. Learn to recognize and avoid phishing emails, threatening calls, and texts from thieves posing as legitimate organizations such as your bank, or credit card company. With lots of coupons, discounts and sales, be cautious on what links you click on and don’t download attachments from unknown or suspicious emails.
• Don’t respond to emails requesting your account details. Do not ever send personal information or credit card information via email. It is best to call back instead using a phone number you can verify from their official website.
• When shopping online, think about where you are doing it from. For example, by using public Wi-Fi, it’s rather simple for someone to intercept your data in a man-in-the-middle attack. It is advisable to use your own Wi-Fi network that is setup with password protection when doing online holiday shopping. 
• Sign out of your accounts when you complete your purchases online. This may sound easy, but you should always log out of your online session rather than let it expire. This will help reduce the chances of your session being hacked. Most site will log you out automatically after you are idle for a couple of minutes, but logging out is still a good habit.
• Make sure that when you purchase online you know the seller. If it is your first purchase from them, check other users feedback. It’s not necessary to get 100%, but two or three bad reviews over poor customer service or non-delivery should raise an alarm.
• When withdrawing cash at ATM’s (remember the days when it was used for everything?), security is not just about looking over your shoulder. Scammers often target an ATM and place a card reader over the card slot so that they can copy your card details. This is not as easy with a chip card, but they also can have a camera on the machine to access the details required to skim your card. Always check the slot to make sure it has not been tampered with.
• Passwords (yawn). Boring maybe. A necessity? Definitely. Also, the biggest hole in your security? Probably. Use different passwords for every site so that when one is hacked, and your details are stolen, only that site is compromised, not all of them.

Now that we’ve highlighted some of the tools to employ when holiday shopping this season to stay cyber safe, come back next Tuesday when we will share ideas to get your board members involved in your cybersecurity strategy.