All the online holiday shopping is fruitful oportunity for online crooks looking to fence a few ill-gotten dollars from unwary customers.
Sophos says a Web poll (already skewed toward Web users) of 280 computer users showed that 71 percent will be shopping online during the holidays. While they're doing that phishers will be right behind them them, waiting to pick up any change they've dropped.
According APACS, a UK trade association, credit card scam draws in $2.3 million daily, as an incidence of fraud happens every nine seconds. Sophos adds that 75 percent of phishing emails are directed at eBay and/or PayPal users, which are global rather than local.
"Reasonable levels of paranoia when shopping online can save you from being under fire by cybercriminals," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at Sophos. "People should treat the internet as they would a power tool: it can take the pain out of a task, providing it is used responsibly. Safety precautions are there for a reason."
The Australia-based security company recommends these security tips for protecting your assets online:
• Ensure that a firewall, anti-virus and all software patches are installed and up-to-date • Enter sensitive information only from a computer you know is secure • Visit and make purchases only from reputable sites • Never follow links from an unsolicited email or spam message • Ensure your passwords are known to you alone and are long enough to be unguessable
