Happy holiday season! The holiday season is a time of giving – but not giving away your personal information! With the increase in online shopping, travel bookings, and generosity, scammers are more active than ever.
Learn about bad actors how bad actors use the holidays as a cover to get your personal information and the best practices you can apply to protect yourself and your family.
Emerging Threats: Internet-of-Things Devices
The holidays are the time of gift - giving. It’s important to know that many of these gifts include Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. Ordinary things like thermostats and light bulbs can be IoT and configured to access with your phone. Each device you connect to your home network is a possible attack point for cybercriminals. Additionally, there are no security standards across all of these different devices, know that they could have security vulnerabilities.
Common IoT gifts come equipped with sensors, such as smart toys, smart watches, smart home security, and fitness trackers, that are designed to collect personal, sensitive information. No doubt, IoT devices offer many benefits. But they are also prone to hacking. Many IoT devices are set up with default settings and passwords that cybercriminals already know because this information is publicly available online. To avoid being a victim of potential device hacking, follow these best practices:
Privacy
· Mute your smart device’s microphone when not using it.
· Disable features you don’t use.
· Choose privacy settings for yourself; don’t accept the defaults.
· Delete or erase unneeded recordings or data.
Security
Keep the device software updated.
Disable voice purchasing or set a password to prevent inadvertent or unauthorized purchases.
Use two-factor authentication for your accounts whenever it’s available. Connect IoT devices to a segmented, guest Wi-Fi, instead of your primary home Wi-Fi to ensure that they are isolated from your other primary devices.
Passwords
Change the default password for the device.
Set a unique password for each device or account.
Change default “wake up” words if you use voice activation.
Emerging Threats: AI-Powered Scams
AI is also significantly impacting the way we shop during the holiday season. AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are helping shoppers navigate through product options, track orders, and handle returns and refunds. This holiday season, 62% of consumers plan to use AI for personalized gift recommendations. According to Wall Street Journal, 3 in 5 retailers using AI have deployed chatbots to support the customer shopping experience (59%) and customer service (58%). With all this also comes the rise of AI scams.
AI can be used to analyze your online activity and social media profiles. The data that it gathers can be used to create emails that appear to come from trusted brands. Many scammers utilize AI to create emails, or text messages from trusted brands to get consumers to spend their money on phony websites. It can be difficult for consumers to tell the difference between real and fake.
Shop safely this holiday season. Be cautious of offers that seem too good to be true. Many scammers succeed by creating a false sense of urgency or exploiting a heightened emotional state. Always pause and examine the message or content carefully. For instance, if you see an inconsistency in the video like unnatural blinking, strange-looking hands, or a sense of urgency to act, call, or click a link, use caution and avoid interacting with the content altogether. When possible, visit the source directly.
Hope this article makes your holiday online shopping safer.
Comentarios