The last minute rush to finish your Christmas holiday shopping in here! The cyber-criminals know that too. so you better make sure you’re not being silly with your cybersecurity. There are amazing deals to be found on the innerwebs as well as online scams. The bad guys want to take advantage of the holiday season to steal your important information.
Mashable recommends that you do your own due diligence and use common sense while shopping online. Here are some basics steps to take while buying your last minute Christmas holiday gifts.
U
se familiar websites
To protect yourself while Christmas shopping online, start with a trusted website. Search results can be rigged. If you know the site, Mashable says chances are it’s less likely to be a rip-off. Do not trust results past the first few pages of links.
Most popular browsers will display a small lock icon in the URL bar to identify a secure website, so be sure to look out for that. Also beware of misspellings or sites using a different top-level domain (.gq instead of .com .au, for example)—those are the oldest tricks in the book, and are likely phishing scams, designed to fool you trusting them by dressing up as a website or service you trust. Yes, sales on these sites might look enticing, but that’s how they trick you into giving up your info.
Don’t overshare online
Be wary when online stores ask for more than they need. If a site’s checkout form includes data fields that aren’t in any way necessary for the transaction, that’s a sign you may want to reconsider the purchase. If those fields are marked as required, that’s worse. But if you are desperate to go ahead, Mashable recommends just lie! Fill the irrelevant required fields with made-up data.
Avoid public Wi-Fi
Do not connect to public Wi-Fi to do your holiday shopping. You are better off using your own Wi-Fi home to shop. If you use public Wi-Fi like in a cafe or shopping center, there’s a chance your transaction could be being captured by hackers. Even if you think you’ve connected to a known, safe Wi-Fi network, nothing prevents a scammer from setting up a portable Wi-Fi hotspot with an SSID that’s the same as that of your favorite coffee shop. Sometimes circumstances may require that you do your shopping while out and about. Mashable says you can improve your security by turning off Wi-Fi and just using cellular data (4G/5G) while shopping.
Use a VPN
Even if you’re shopping on a familiar website, from your home computer, there is still valuable information that can be scraped from your online interactions. Mashable says your IP Address is often visible to anyone who knows where to look. This can provide cyber criminals with not only your exact location, but often all the other devices that are connected to your network at any given time. To avoid this, the simplest solution is to install a VPN (or Virtual Private Network). This will encrypt your communications and prevent any possibility of snooping. It’s also just a great habit to get into, as a good VPN will provide protection without slowing down your network speeds too much.
Be password smart
Some shopping sites let you check out as a guest, just giving the one-time information needed for your transaction. Others require you to create a login identity complete with password and username. Remembering passwords is tough, so you may be tempted to just recycle the same password over and over. Don’t! Hackers know that many people indulge in password recycling. When attackers get credentials from one retailer, they quickly try the credentials at other, similar sites. If you don’t want to remember multiple passwords, the best solution to create strong, secure ones is to use a password manager.
Watch your back
Another benefit to shopping from home: nobody potentially looking over your shoulder. When you whip out your credit card and start typing the number into a website, nearby snoops have an opportunity to see and memorize the number. You can foil shoulder-surfers by staying alert, sitting with your back to the wall, and keeping your screen shielded. Better yet, use your password manager to fill in saved credit card data, while the card itself stays safe in your wallet.
Check your bank statements regularly
Don’t wait for your bill to come at the end of the month. Go online regularly during the holiday season and look at electronic statements for your credit card, debit card, and checking accounts. Look for any fraudulent charges, even originating from payment sites like PayPal and Venmo. (After all, there’s more than one way to get your money.) Always keep track of your purchases online, and you will know straight away if something is wrong.
Stay informed
Once you have yourself and your devices fully protected, take the next step. Online threats are becoming more and more sophisticated every year, and you need to ensure you’re up to date with all the latest threats, as well as tips and tricks from cybersecurity professionals. Follow a security blog that is consistently updated as the industry shifts and threats evolve.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
The Kids Online Safety Act, known as KOSA, is another half-assed publicity grab. The politicians fail to address the root cause of the problem – data collection. We can all agree that social media is bad for kids. There is enough proof from 
To begin with, the 
The KOSA requirements would mandate that platforms have parental controls. These government-mandated controls could be harmful to kids in abusive situations. 
KOSA would give the President control over what people see online. The government would create a 
According to Fight for the Future, the bill would incentivize sites to collect even more information about children to verify their ages and place further restrictions on minors’ accounts. They explain,
KOSA would also create unintended consequences. The unintended consequences include driving children to use less secure or more harmful platforms. The Kids Online Safety Act would make kids more vulnerable to online predators who could exploit their age verification information. It would also undermine the trust and communication between children and parents, as well as between platforms and users.
The 
The bill authorizes the President through the Secretary of Commerce to prohibit transactions involving information and communications technology (ICT) products and services in which any foreign adversary has any interest. The bill requires the Commerce Department to maintain a list of foreign entities that pose a risk to the U.S. ICT supply chain. The bill classifies China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela as foreign adversaries.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service that encrypts and routes your internet traffic through a server in another location. A VPN encrypts your communications to protect your data. VPNs make it appear as if you are accessing the web from the VPN server’s location. This legislation could outlaw the use of 
Experts agree the legislation would 
The TikTok ban is a violation of the 
Americans who violate The RESTRICT Act could end up with civil and criminal penalties. The bill would impose civil and criminal penalties for violations of any order or mitigation measure issued. The civil penalties include fines up to $250,000 or twice the value of the transaction that served as the basis of the order, whichever is greater. The criminal penalties of up to $1 million and up to 20 years imprisonment.
The more information you share about yourself (as well as your friends and family), the greater the risk of exposure to online threats such as identity theft, cyber-stalking and cyber-bullying. Here are some simple tips on how to protect your online information, identity and privacy on Data Privacy Day 2022.
WFM growth has been driven by three business demands. The research firm identified concerns about