ROI Revolution estimates that e-commerce sales will eclipse $236 billion this holiday season. While that’s the most popular time for consumers to purchase online, in 2021, over $2 billion a day was made in online purchases.

Chances are you and your employees make purchases weekly personally and for your business.

And…chances are that cybercriminals are trying to capitalize on this to steal credit card numbers, logins and passwords, and even your and your customer’s banking information.

If they don’t follow these four practices to stay safer (notice I didn’t say safe) buying online, they could expose themselves and their business to identity theft, fraud, and more.

  1. Don’t reuse passwords from site to site. If you use the same password for multiple sites, when one company’s records get breached (which happens every day), a criminal now has access to various accounts. So make sure you use different passwords for different sites. This makes things slightly more complicated for you but makes it infinitely harder for cybercriminals.
  2. Check the URL in the address bar. One indication that a website is secure is that it has a small lock symbol to the far left of the URL or “https” in the URL. If you see an unlocked lock or just an “http,” the site is not secure – do NOT provide any credit card information or bank account details.
  3. Don’t use a debit card to pay – only use a credit card. This way, if someone can access your account, you won’t lose what’s currently in your bank account. And most major credit cards have a $50 or less liability policy if unauthorized charges are made. So it’s important to watch those statements. If you feel you’re a fraud victim, make sure to contact your credit card company immediately.
  4. Be wary of any texts or e-mails about package deliveries. Even if you have something you’re tracking, go back to the site you originally purchased from to check notifications that way. Any links from an unknown sender could infect the device you’re on, which could expose you to viruses and malicious software.

While there are plenty of cybercriminals happy to scam consumers, who they want to go after are businesses because they have much deeper pockets, and there are multiple ways they can cause havoc.

Click here to schedule a 10-minute call https://www.acskenosha.com/discoverycall/ to discuss your situation, needs, and concerns. Then, if appropriate, we can conduct a simple security assessment for free to know if your network and data are safe.

To schedule a 10-minute call to ensure all hybrid employees have all the tools necessary to protect your company’s data, visit https://www.acskenosha.com/discoverycall/ or call us at 262-942-8572.