7 Ways To Ensure A Safe Online Shopping Experience
Given today's problems with the economy, shoppers are increasingly turning to internet shopping in order to beat the credit crunch. A convenient way to browse and compare gift ideas, shopping online provides an attractive alternative to the often gruelling experience of researching the best prices on the high street.
Buying your gifts on the internet provides the distinct advantage that you can easily compare the prices of your chosen items. Manually comparing prices often yields favourable results, or price comparison websites such as Pricerunner or Kelkoo can often help to find the best prices in the least time. In a difficult financial climate, being able to maximise your budget is, without doubt, a contributing factor to the ever-growing popularity of shopping on the internet.
Internet shopping is generally a very secure medium for today's busy shopper, however to ensure a positive shopping experience it is worth following the following guidelines for online shopping.
1) Secure SSL Certificate
Always ensure that the website you are buying from carries an SSL certificate on pages where you are entering private information such credit card and billing information. 'SSL' stands for Secure Sockets Layer and is used to encrypt sensitive information transmitted over the internet.
Information transmitted via SSL cannot be read by unauthorised third parties, so your details cannot be deciphered even in the off-chance they are intercepted. To check whether the website you are buying from uses SSL (and every website taking credit card details should be) simply check the URL of your page for the https: and/or the secure padlock symbol at the foot of your browser window.
2) Internet Browser Updates
To ensure a safe online shopping experience, and in general, you should always make sure your internet browser is kept as up to date as possible. New browser updates are continually released to address security bugs and vulnerabilities. Updates are free to download and easy to install, so there is no reason not to have the latest version of your browser installed.
3) Operating System Updates
As with Internet Browsers, Operating Systems can also be open to new vulnerabilities, which is why it is important to update your operating system for a safe online experience. This is especially important for Windows based operating systems, which are installed in most home computers/laptops, and as such are particularly liable to security breaches.
Modern operating systems provide you to automatically update your software by configuring your device to do so, or you can manually download the most recent updates for free online. Either way, you should try to make sure your operating system is up to date to ensure a secure web browsing environment.
4) Anti-Virus Software
Most people are aware of the importance of installing a good anti-virus package, but it is worth re-iterating this point. Viruses often arrive disguised of email attachments or website downloads, but they can also be unknowingly downloaded from malicious sites just by visiting that website.
There are a selection of excellent anti-virus packages available, both commercial and free, so ensuring against potential viruses is as simple as finding the correct package for you and installing it.
You should also make sure your anti-virus suite is up-to-date by installing the most recent virus definitions when they become available. Updated virus definitions contain code used to recognise new virus threats, so to ensure your computer is suitably protected it is important to install these updates. Your anti-virus package normally complete this process automatically, and Windows based operating systems will alert you if your virus protection is not up-to-date.
5) Adware/Anti-Spyware/Malware software
There are other forms of malicious software which can threaten the security of internet users. Spyware and Adware usually install themselves on your computer simply by visiting a malicious website. At worst, this type of software can install security threats such as keylogger software, which can log the keypresses of the keyboard on an infected machine, and can be used to hijack sensitive information such as credit card numbers.
There are a number of very good free software packages which prevent malicious software such as Spyware/Adware/Malware from running on your machine, so it is a wise move to install such a package on your device.
6) Install Firewall software
A Firewall prevents access to your pc by an unauthorised user or software program. If you do not have a Firewall installed, your computer might be vulnerable to hacking attempts and malicious software such as trojans, worms and viruses, therefore it is important to ensure you have one installed. Again, there are some very good Firewall programs available for free download, and in modern installations of Windows operating systems a Firewall is included as standard.
7) Phishing Websites/Emails
'Phishing' describes a relatively well-known security issue whereby a malicious user/organisation attempts to gain access to sensitive information such as usernames/passwords/credit card details using a fake website and/or email.
Typically, a user may receive an email, e.g. from a reputable bank, requesting that the recipient of the email update their details online. The phishing email normally links to a illegitimate website set up to collect your details for illicit purposes. Phishing websites often closely resemble the original website on which they are based, and recipients of phishing emails can be tricked into revealing their sensitive information to unscrupulous fraudsters.
Modern Internet Browsers have installed anti-phishing tools which alert users to of potential phishing sites. Vigilance is also recommended, as banking websites will never email clients requesting full passwords or usernames.
By adhering to these top 7 tips for secure online shopping, you can ensure online shopping is as safe as possible, with the added satisfaction that you can make significant savings in the process.
