Online Security: A Black Friday Shopping Primer

Online shopping is big business — more than $38 billion will be spent online between now and Christmas — and online crooks aren’t about to miss out on that opportunity.

As eSecurity Planet reports, the speed and ease of shopping via a browser might sound appealing, but unless you heed these online shopping tips, you might find the experience to be more expensive and more of a hassle than waiting for a parking spot at the mall.

According to Panda Labs, 66 percent of identified malware threats are Trojans embedded in unsolicited emails or tucked away in otherwise innocuous-looking websites that are specifically designed to steal users’ most sensitive data.

“Cybercriminals know this Friday and Monday are two of the biggest shopping days of the year, and Americans are going to be sharing tons of sensitive data online during this period,” Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher at PandaLabs, wrote in the report.

Security software vendor Panda Security is offering up some simple online shopping tips for consumers looking to dive into the holiday shopping season this week without losing either their identities or their hard-earned cash.

Thanks to the combination of the proliferation of mobile devices and the number of etailers offering Black Friday deals online, cybercrooks are ready to pounce.

According to Panda Labs, 66 percent of identified malware threats are Trojans embedded in unsolicited emails or tucked away in otherwise innocuous-looking websites that are specifically designed to steal users’ most sensitive data.

Read the full story at eSecurity Planet:


Six Security Tips to Survive Cyber Black Friday