Securing Your Online Cart
Mizzou cybersecurity expert shares tips for staying safe as you shop online.
December 3, 2024
by Janese Heavin
The holiday season is here, and more than half of shoppers are gearing up to buy gifts online. For those in rural areas, shopping online may be more appealing than a trip to town and/or crowds of holiday shoppers. Yet, an increase in online shopping also means a rise in scams.
Before you click “checkout,” check out these tips from University of Missouri cybersecurity expert Prasad Calyam, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the Greg L. Gilliom Professor of Cyber Security and the director of the Center for Cyber Education, Research and Infrastructure (CERI) at Mizzou.
We asked Calyam for advice to help keep your holidays safe and scam-free.
When shopping online for holiday gifts, how can you verify a website is legitimate?
When you shop on an e-commerce website, you need to do your homework to ensure that the site is legitimate and not a fake set up by a scammer to capture personal information for financial gain. Use trusted sources for customer reviews, check the site’s rating through the Better Business Bureau, or confirm that the online store has a physical location and customer service information. If using a mobile shopping app, download it from trusted sources such as the Apple Store or Google Play, which feature customer reviews and ensure app safety.
Online payment should only be made through secure sessions on legitimate vendor sites to ensure your payment information is encrypted and cannot be intercepted during the transactions.
How can you ensure your online payment is secure?
Online payment should only be made through secure sessions on legitimate vendor sites to ensure your payment information is encrypted and cannot be intercepted during the transactions. To verify that a vendor online payment transaction is secure before providing financial information, look for a padlock icon and “https” at the beginning of the vendor site’s address.
What type of payment method is the safest for making online purchases?
Using your credit card or a payment service such as PayPal, Google Pay or Apple Pay is the safest way to make payments for online purchases because they offer more consumer protection in case of a fraud incident. When possible, enable multifactor authentication for your online purchase transactions to proactively block fraud.
How can you stay safe while shopping online using free or public Wi-Fi?
It is important to use secure networks when shopping online, and public/free Wi-Fi networks are not adequately secure. One option is to save items in your cart when connected to a public/free Wi-Fi, then connect to a secure network at your home or office later to provide financial information and complete the purchase.
What are some red flags to look for when you receive an email promoting a discount or other special offer?
When you receive emails with links to click for sales or special promotions, do not click until you verify the links point to a legitimate vendor’s address. Also, if a promotion seems too good to be true, you should be very wary and check for red flags that relate to scammers.
Any other tips for protecting your data while shopping online?
If you are asked to provide information during the online purchase, you can skip optional fields where you need to share more information than necessary to complete your transaction. In general, it’s best not to save your payment information on online websites. Use a password manager to organize your login information across multiple online shopping websites. Lastly, make it a habit to monitor all your bank and credit card accounts for any suspicious or unauthorized activity.
What are some ways you are preparing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals at Mizzou and through CERI?
At Mizzou CERI, we are offering courses that cover a broad set of topics ranging from data security, network security, software security and smart grid security to prepare students to become cybersecurity professionals who are not only innovators and problem solvers, but also engineering leaders. Through hands-on learning opportunities and resources to participate in federal and industry-sponsored research projects — as well as cyber hackathons — we are preparing students to work in team-based settings to solve real-world cyber defense challenges affecting critical infrastructures such as health care, energy, manufacturing and transportation.
Editor’s note: This article is from the University of Missouri. [Lead illustration by BlackJack3D from Getty Images.]
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