Guidelines for Secure Shopping Online
Posted: Thursday, July 09, 2009
by David Webb
http://www.giftygifts.co.uk
With the present economic difficulties, shoppers are increasingly turning to internet shopping in attempts to save money. A convenient method to browse and compare gift ideas, shopping via your favourite online store offers a more efficient method of researching the best prices on the high street.
Shopping online provides the added bonus that you can quickly and efficiently compare the prices of your chosen gifts, either by manually comparing prices on a selection of websites, or through price comparison services such as Kelkoo and Pricerunner. In a difficult economic climate, the ability to maximise your budget is, without doubt, one of the main driving forces behind the growing popularity of internet shopping.
1) SSL Certificate
Ensure that the website you are buying from provides an SSL certificate on pages where you are entering private information such credit card and billing information. 'SSL' stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is used to encrypt sensitive information for transmission over the internet.
Information transmitted via SSL cannot be read by unauthorised third parties, so your details cannot be deciphered even in the off-chance they are intercepted. To check whether the website you are buying from uses an SSL certificate (and every website taking credit card details should be) simply check the URL of your page for the https: and/or the secure padlock symbol at the foot of your browser window.
2) Internet Browser Updates
To ensure a trouble-free online shopping experience, and in general, it is important to ensure your internet browser is kept as up to date as possible. New browser updates are regularly released to address security bugs and vulnerabilities. Free to download and install, updating your browser is quick and easy, so there is no reason not to have the latest version of your browser installed.
3) Update Your Operating System
As with Internet Browsers, Operating Systems are also vulnerable to new bugs and security holes, which is why it is important to update your operating system for a safe online experience. This is of particular importance for Windows based operating systems, which are installed in most home computers/laptops, and as such are more likely to be targeted by malicious third parties seeking to manipulate security vulnerabilities.
Most modern operating systems allow you to automatically update your software by configuring your device to do so, or you can manually download the most recent software updates for free via the web. In either case, you should always ensure your operating system is current to ensure optimal security at all times.
4) Keep Your Anti-Virus Software Up-To-Date
Most of us are aware of the importance of installing a good anti-virus suite, but it is worth re-iterating this point. Viruses often arrive disguised of email attachments or website downloads, but they can also be picked up unknowingly from infected sites just by visiting that website.
There are a good number of excellent anti-virus packages available, both commercial and free, so ensuring against potential virus threats is as simple as finding the correct package for you and installing it.
You should also ensure your anti-virus suite is up-to-date by installing the most up-to-date virus definitions when they become available. Updated virus definitions contain code used to discover new virus threats, so to ensure your device is adequately protected it is important to install these updates. Most anti-virus packages normally download these definitions automatically, and Windows based operating systems will alert you if your virus protection is not up-to-date.
5) Protection Against Malware/Adware/Spyware
Other forms of malicuious software exist, which pose a potential threat to internet users. Spyware and Adware normally install themselves on your computer simply by visiting a malicious website. At worst, this type of software can install malicious programs such as keylogger software, which records the keypresses of the keyboard on a compromised machine, and can be used to obtain sensitive information such as credit card numbers.
There are a number of very good free software packages which prevent malicious software such as Spyware/Adware/Malware from running on your machine, so it is a wise move to install such a package on your device.
6) Install Firewall Software on your Computer
A Firewall prevents access to your computer by an unauthorised user or software program. If you do not have a Firewall installed, your computer might be vulnerable to hacking attempts and malicious software such as trojans, worms and viruses, therefore it is important to ensure you have one installed. Again, there are a number of excellent Firewall programs available for free download, and in modern installations of Windows operating systems a Firewall is included as standard.
7) Beware of Phishing Websites/Emails
'Phishing' is a widespread security issue whereby a malicious user/organisation can gain access to sensitive information such as usernames/passwords/credit card details using a fake website and/or email.
In most cases, a user will receive an email, for example from a reputable bank, requesting that the recipient of the email update their details online. The phishing email usually contains a link to a illegitimate website created to collect your details for fraudulent purposes. These websites are often near-identical the original website they are based upon, and recipients of phishing emails are often tricked into revealing their sensitive information to fraudulent third parties.
The latest Internet Browsers have installed anti-phishing tools which alert users to of potential phishing sites. Common sense also plays an important role, as banking websites will never email clients requesting full passwords or usernames.
By applying these top 7 tips for safe shopping online, you can ensure your shopping experience is as secure as possible, whilst making significant savings in the process.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)This seems like really good and relevant advice to me.
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