Black Friday Danger

Black Friday

Black Friday is one of the most dangerous days of the year. Now I know statistics say that other days or even holidays are more dangerous. I am not talking physical harm, though you can get harmed shopping on Black Friday, ever dealt with a Black Friday crowd? I am talking about the cyber danger. Over the years, especially after 9/11, more and more people have been shopping online on Black Friday and stores with online stores have been putting sales on their sites. Days like this are a hacker’s wet dream. Granted, over the years, more and more companies have been making sure that their sites are protected from hackers and try to protect your information that you are sending over the web. There are easy ways to tell if a site is protected.

1. If the site is protected, you should see a small padlock on the bottom of the screen
2. On top where you type in the URL (company web address), you see it says HTTP, if the site is truly secured, it should say HTTPS.

Now it is important to look for these things because that means hackers cannot bug the site. With more and more internet security that companies hire, it became more and more difficult. Plus, these companies usually hire hackers to protect their own sites (don’t worry, these hackers are usually retired from the game).

There are other things to watch for, such as:

1. 1.Blindly Clicking Into Unfamiliar Sites
2. Assuming You Have the Same Protections With Debit as Credit
3. Not Monitoring Your Accounts
4. Shopping From a Public Wi-Fi Connection
5. Billing Directly to Your Smart Phone
6. Wiring Money to Pay For an Item
7. Falling For Too-Good-to-Be-True Deals
8. Clicking a Link in an Unsolicited E-Mail
9. Clicking URLs on Social-Networking Sites
10. Assuming an Escrow Service Is Always Safe

These are more of the hacker’s wet dream ways to get your money and information. People tend not to watch their money closely and wait a while before they truly add things up to see how much they spend. This is what hackers are waiting for, your false sense of security. Lose that, you can lose more than just your mind!

The best way to make sure your information is not stolen is always go to the stores and deal with the mob of shoppers. The worse you will get is a black eye!

*some information was found at: http://www.buxr.com/topic/dangers-to-avoid-when-shopping-online_4028

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