KANSAS CITY, Mo — Cyber Monday has arrived, and as millions of eager shoppers across the United States gear up to snag the best online deals, cybersecurity experts are sounding the alarm on the rising threat of online scams and security breaches.
Cyber Monday falls on the Monday following Thanksgiving each year, signaling the beginning of the holiday season. With the convenience of online shopping comes the responsibility of safeguarding personal and financial information.
“Everybody's getting hacked," said Tanner Shinn, Alias Cybersecurity specialist. "People have to be hyper-vigilant about it and proactive. It's no longer enough to say, 'oh, this is a vulnerability that has to be patched in some old technology.' Now you have to actually be proactive about it and go after it.”
According to recent data, 36 million Americans have become victims of scammers. To ensure a safe online purchasing experience, Shinn said consumers must remain watchful as scammers become more skilled.
“In this day and age, it's not an if, it's a when," Shinn said. "It's all over the news of everybody getting hacked every single week. And it's more and more, it's just been almost an exponential increase of companies that get breached.”
Here are some tips for safe online shopping this Cyber Monday.
- Use Secure Networks: Ensure that you shop on secure and trusted Wi-Fi networks. Avoid public Wi-Fi, as it may expose your personal information to potential hackers.
- Shop from Trusted Sites: Stick to well-known and reputable online retailers. Check for "https://" in the website address and look for security badges to confirm that the site is real.
- Create strong, unique passwords: Make sure your passwords are long, with a mix of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and characters.
- Create one-time use/disposable credit cards: These are temporary throwaway credit card numbers that are linked to your real card number. You can use them for one purchase or a limited time, then they will no longer work.
Shinn said Cyber Monday is one of the days where scammers are lurking to find one wrong mistake that could become costly and dangerous.
"This is the number one weekend for companies to get hacked as well. Because people are going on vacation, their IT people are watching, their security people are slacking, and this is when the attackers know it, and this is when they strike," Shinn said.
