DON’T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN
Be wary on Cyber Monday
WITH Black Friday behind us, shoppers will continue with their spree tomorrow as they take advantage of Cyber Monday where everything goes on sale online.
Cyber experts, however, have confirmed that shoppers are increasingly becoming victims of cybercrime. They said cyber attacks on shoppers tend to spike over the festive season, starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday when transactions increase.
South Africa has the third highest number of cybercrime victims worldwide, losing around R2.2 billion a year in cyber attacks, according to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric).
Experts have cautioned shoppers and retailers to be careful when shopping online to avoid being victims.
Carl Uys, a cyber expert at Bowline Security, a cyber security company based in umhlanga, said shoppers must ensure that the online shops have security features like a valid digital security certificate.
“To ensure that, you must click on the letters https and/or the padlock at the beginning of a web address. Shoppers must make use of online shops that use 3D secure, which is an additional security layer for online credit and debit card transactions,” Uys said.
He said retailers must ensure that their online shops can handle the massive traffic by subscribing to a reputable DNS (domain name system) security service.
“Retailers’ security certificates for their online stores must be valid and up to date. They must also ensure that their online stores provide 3D secure services so that the risk of fraudulent buyers are reduced,” Uys said.
Charl Ueckermann, chief executive at AVES Cyber Security, said shoppers should be careful of fake payment sites, when using public wi-fi, entering credit card details on unsecured sites (http instead of https) and receiving one-time passwords when they are not busy with online shopping transactions.
Ueckermann said point of sale systems should be designed to encrypt sensitive data from credit cards the moment information is received and again when it is sent to the payment server, such as passwords, configurations and other critical confidential data.
“The responsibility is on retailers to protect their customers and data against cyberattacks over the holiday shopping season and beyond.
“Strategies and measures should be in place to provide a safe and secure experience for customers online and in-store,” he said.
Ueckermann added that card and online payment processes should be secured and encrypted, saying protecting customers’ payment information at every stage of the payment process is vital.
Matthew Leighton, spokesperson of sale site company One Day Only, said that shoppers should be cautious when purchasing online but said cybercrime has decreased compared with when online shopping became popular in the country.
“I would advise people to verify a site before shopping on them. If you think you are getting a deal that is too good to be true online, it’s best to verify it before purchasing,” Leighton said.
He said with the growing investment in telecommunications infrastructure in the country, it made sense that more people would opt to shop online through their devices.