Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Trend Micro Canada's Top Tips for Safe and Secure Online Shopping
'Tis the Season to Stay Secure
OTTAWA, Nov. 22, 2012 /CNW/ - With this year's cyber holiday shopping season about to begin, Canadians in record numbers will be online looking for perfect gifts, deals and bargains. Unfortunately shoppers and sellers aren't the only ones who will be busy. Cybercriminals are bound to be out in force this season.
An estimated sixty percent of Canadians --an increase from 49% in 20111 -- will go online during the course of their holiday shopping to find the lowest available price, research potential gifts and purchase gifts for friends and family. In the process, many will unwillingly hand over personal banking and credit card information, or accidentally download malware.
"Online shopping is designed to make holiday gift giving convenient. That convenience should not come with the added worry and cost of lost information, privacy and security," says Trend Micro Canada's Laura Maio, director of marketing. "A few minutes of your attention will go a long way to make sure your online activity and mobile device is secure. And that adds up to a safe and stress free holiday shopping experience."
Online shoppers need to take the following precautions:
1. For Mobile users: Use your smart phone or tablet's built in security features.
Take five minutes to configure location and security settings.
2. Avoid using free but unsecured wifi.
Automatically accessing open wireless means opening the door to anyone. Keep your automatic wifi option turned off on laptops, tablets and mobile devices.
3. Look before you click.
Scrutinize every link, or mobile app regardless of source. According to recent Trend Micro research, one in five users end up at an unexpected on line location after clicking a link. Some of these locations download malicious apps, others offer "too good to be true" deals designed to reveal individual private banking or credit card information. Every link is not what it seems -- the first Android Trojan came under the guise of a Windows media player.
4. Before saying yes, understand what you are being asked.
Be careful about granting access to personal or device information or allowing apps to perform unnecessary functions in order to work. Many free mobile apps use mobile adware to recoup the cost of the app, and these ads frequently pose serious privacy-related threats, accessing information such as call history, phone numbers, user location (determined by GPS) and unique information about the phone, without the user knowing.
5. Consider the small cost of an effective security app for your phone or laptop.
Sometimes common sense isn't enough to prevent a digital disaster. For example, Trend Micro's Mobile Security for Android secures mobile banking transactions, blocks access to malicious sites and notifies users if the mobile app has malicious, or privacy-breaching tendencies.
Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), the global cloud security leader, creates a world safe for exchanging digital information with its Internet content security and threat management solutions for businesses and consumers. A pioneer in server security with over 20 years' experience, we deliver top-ranked client, server and cloud-based security that fits our customers' and partners' needs, stops new threats faster, and protects data in physical, virtualized and cloud environments. Powered by the industry-leading Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ global threat intelligence data-mining framework, our products and services stop threats where they emerge - from the Internet. More than 1000 talented threat researchers around the world support these efforts.
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1Deloitte 2012 Holiday outlook survey
SOURCE: Trend Micro Canada
Trend Micro Canada Media Contact: Claire M. Tallarico 416 616 9940
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