While Black Friday is designed to be a fun and exciting time of the year, it’s also an excellent opportunity to protect your sensitive information and data from cyber criminals by following these five cybersecurity tips to keep you safe while shopping on Black Friday. By heeding this advice, you’ll be able to shop with confidence while still keeping your personal information safe and sound.
1) Avoid Phishing Scams
Phishing is one of the most common security threats online. It can be done through email or a text message and will typically ask for sensitive information like bank account numbers and passwords. If you receive a phishing scam, don’t click on any links or open any attachments–just delete it immediately.
Smishing is similar to phishing but is done with SMS text messages instead of emails.
2) Create Strong Passwords
Creating strong passwords is the best way to protect yourself from hacking or smishing. It’s important to remember that easy-to-guess passwords like 123456 can easily be hacked. One of the most important things you can do is use different passwords for different accounts and don’t share your password with anyone. Use a password manager, which will store all of your passwords in one place, so that you’ll never forget them.
3) Use a VPN
In today’s world, it’s hard to avoid online shopping. To make your experience as safe as possible, you should use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN will protect you from hackers by making sure all of your data is encrypted. It will also mask your IP address so that no one can see where you’re connecting from or what you’re doing online.
4) Don’t Click on Unknown Links
- Do not click on unknown links. The messages may be from a hacker trying to infect your system with malware, or they might contain a virus. Either way, it’s not worth the risk.
- Do not download any attachments from emails you weren’t expecting, even if they appear to come from someone you know and trust. Attachments can contain viruses that will infiltrate your system without you realizing it until too late.
5) Be Wary of Too Good to Be True Offers
The internet is a wonderful place for finding deals, but the unfortunate downside is that you are also more susceptible to fraud. Be wary of too-good-to-be-true offers and check the website’s url so it matches their main domain (no misspelling) and has a security certificate (it starts with HTTPS!) before inputting your credit card information.