Tips for protecting your customers from Black Friday cyber threats

With Black Friday ramping up and Cyber Monday right around the corner online shopping is in for a big week, but with that comes security concerns and cyber threats.

If we’ve learned anything from this year it is that companies are not blameless when it comes to security breaches.

According to a customer survey study from Accenture 66 per cent of shoppers are concerned about the security of their personal information, with 44 per cent going as far as to say they will avoid brands that have had a recent security breach.

A blog post from Trend Micro has outlined some of the ways scammers will try to take advantage of shoppers; from legitimate-looking email threats, to taking advantage of personally identifiable information on mobile, voice-assistant and internet of thing (IoT) devices, and false online ads, promotions and links.

Educating consumers can be an easy and helpful way to make them feel more secure about online purchases.

Here are seven tips to share with your consumers, from cybersecurity and defence experts Trend Micro (click image for larger version):

1. Check any email coming from banks that request verification
2. Enable multi-factor authentication for your online accounts and enable your credit card’s one-time password feature
3. Keep your e-receipts and compare them with your credit card statements
4. Avoid connecting mobile devices to unsecure public networks
5. Choose retailer sites with buyer protection
6. When using voice-enabled assistants, monitor your publicly posted personally identifiable information, these can be used as credentials to access IoT devices
7. Look for the verifier symbols of brands and shops, especially when visiting “so-called” business pages on social media, before interacting, shopping, or providing information

As the popularity of these shopping holidays grows, more Canadians are starting to participate, and online shopping, notably social media is playing an increasing role in how local shoppers find deals. You can find more of our coverage on 2018 Black Friday shopping trends here.