Who doesn’t love a good sale? Singaporeans in general have got to support me on this one. We have so many options for sales from our Great Singapore Sale to the coming Singles Day and Black Friday this month. The best part for any shopaholic is the fact that these sales are no longer limited to just physical stores but also include online shopping.
However the one problem with online shopping is the more convenient the shopping experience is, the easier it is for irresponsible individuals to take advantage over easily accessible personal data exchanged during online transactions.
Before you and I both jump on board of holiday season preparation and online retail therapy with all these available discounts, study your current passwords carefully. Could it be your passwords are vulnerable to security attacks? If they are, what can you do to save your personal data now?
One of the reasons why we’re so vulnerable to personal data attacks is the fact that we don’t take our passwords seriously or attempt to make them more complicated. Remembering one password can be difficult enough and we often try to make it more convenient on our ends by using points close to our thoughts and hearts such as important dates and names or even easily typed out passwords like numerics. But think of it this way, easy come, easy go especially in terms of passwords. Apart from the fact that numerics “123456” were among the popularly used passwords worldwide in 2016, it also takes about a second for a hacker to crack. If you’re doubting how long it would take a hacker to decode your password, check out Kaspersky.
We often fear complicated passwords because we relate it to being difficult to remember. You can find out a very helpful infographic guide on creating a secure, complicated password on Black-Friday.sale.
Another tip for my fellow shopaholics is to avoid shopping online with public Wi-Fi. As tempting as it is to kill time while waiting at a cafe or airport to shop, you might want to reconsider. Using public WiFi for financial transactions leave you vulnerable to hackers who are connected to the same network. According to a survey conducted by Identity Theft Resource Center shows that almost 8 out of 10 people use an open WiFi network at least once a month.
Not only should you make sure the domain you shop on is safe – also take the extra mile by keying in your credit card information manually rather than saving it on the site.
If you think it’s a hassle to key in your details for each and every online transaction, it’s even more of a hassle the second you become a victim of personal data hacking. According to a survey from CreditCards.com, 94 million Americans prefer to give online stores permission to save their card details till the next purchase. In more than one way, this is actually providing hackers easy access to your finances. In fact, it’s almost like walking around with your pin codes plastered over your forehead.
That being said, you are saving not only yourselves but also your bank savings from magically disappearing during this peak season.
Written by MaryAnn Toh
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