With the digitalization of society, many offline tasks are digitalized. Those tasks which used to consume much time, energy and mobility, now can be done with just a simple click. Nowadays digitalizations, clothes even services like rides are just one touch away. The digitalization has also reduced the hassle of carrying around a deck of cash. This is also the case with online shopping. In today’s world, due to our busy lifestyles and lack of time for commuting, most of us prefer online shopping. Mainly due to some reasons, firstly, it saves a lot of time of ours, second is the fact that more variety is available, more options are there to choose from and finally, it is much more convenient. Online shopping is well and good, but the fact remains that wherever thereis money, attackers are present, attempting to steal it. And online shopping endpoints area hotspot for such people.Due to the convenience brought by the online shopping, many naive users are also using it,which leads them to be an easy target.
It is very easy in today’s world to make a fake page of online shopping, which would look like a genuine one. Most users would think it to be an authentic one and would get trapped. These pages, called phishing pages, attempt to steal the credit card information of the users and then extract money from it, leaving the end-user helples.Another common way to lure people through these online shopping sites is to send a fake mail,that would convey some discount related to some festivals or sale, that contains a maliciouslink. Once the user clicks on the link, their personal data may get stolen, or in the worst case, a ransomware attack may take place wherein all the data in the user’s computer would get encrypted with an undecipherable encryption standard and the user has to pay a certain amount of money to get the key.These are the general ways how the common users get tricked, which leads to their loss of personal data and money. To deal with these frauds, one has to be aware of where they are clicking and that the websites that they are visiting are trustworthy or not. One should keep their browsers updated regularly, maintain a good and up-to-date anti-virus program, a firewall, andanti-spyware. Further, one should only shop from reputable vendors, and keep a watch on any suspicious behavior of any page, link, or mail. Also, it has to be remembered to check the site’s privacy policy before giving out personal or financial information. One must make sure that the information they give out is encrypted.
To check if it is, see if it includes a URL that begins with “https:” instead of “Http:” and has a padlock icon. If the padlock is closed, the information is encrypted. One must know where the padlock icon is generally located in their favorite browser, since some attackers use fake padlock icons to trick users. So, these are the basic tips and tricks that one may use to be safe from the attackers. One is never 100% safe in the cyber world, but the attacks can be minimized by these precautions.Lastly, online shopping is truly a time-saving, hassle-free, and fun way of buying whatever they want on the internet. Yet, at the same time, one must be alert while sharing personal sensitive informations that they can have a happy and secure online shopping.
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