Cyber Monday Cometh

For everyone in the United States, I hope you and your families had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. For those outside the US, I hope you had a productive second half of last week.

And so the holiday shopping season has begun. The Black Friday early morning deals are over. I didn't go out this year, but did last year and have to admit, it was kind of fun despite the chaos.

Last year I went to a Kohl's department store in search of a kitchen mixer that my wife really wanted (it was on sale from $300 down to about $160). So, I got to the store about an hour before it opened and the foyer area was already packed. I was still able to find a little space to squeeze in though which was nice because it was pretty darn cold outside. Anyway, 5am came, the doors opened and the mad rush began. The hot item was a personal DVD player which was on sale (after rebates) for about $50, down about 75% or so from its' regular price. There was a huge display of boxes of DVD players about 50 feet from the door and as soon as the doors opened people ran towards them like they were going to get an opportunity to touch their favorite rock musician. It was almost cartoon-like watching not only people fighting over these boxes, but watching the boxes fly all over the place as people tried to grab them. It truly was something to behold. Thankfully most people weren't there for the mixers so I was in and out of the store in about 7 minutes. Not bad to save $140!

Anyway, I digress...

Coming up on Monday is the single largest *online* shopping day of the year, thusly named Cyber Monday. On Cyber Monday (November 27th) 2006 people spent $608M online according to comScore Networks. That was a 26% increase over the 2005 number of $484M. The 2007 number is expected to be higher than the 2006 number, but perhaps not as much of an increase because of the economic ups and downs of the past year.

Why is this a security issue? Many people will be doing not only their Cyber Monday shopping, but also a good amount of their total holiday online shopping from their computers at work, taking advantage of faster online connections than they have at home. Depending on who you read the percentages range anywhere from 45% to 75% of people will do some amount of online holiday shopping while at work.

Online safety should be of paramount concern during the holiday season. With numbers like $608M in one day of online spending looking them in the face, that is too large a number for criminals to not try to get a piece of the action on. As aware as you need to be of threats on the internet (like phishing) during the other 47 weeks of the year, the 5+ of the holiday season present the biggest risk of fraud.

To help, here are some tips to follow during the holiday shopping rush (they really aren't any different than the rest of the year, but require extra diligence during the holidays because people are often in a rush to buy items quickly and easily online and don't always pay attention to the warning signs):

-- Shop only at retailers you know and trust, just like you would do if you were shopping in the local mall. Also, if you want to visit that retailers web site, type their URL directly into your browser. Don't follow links from email marketing email as that email could direct you to a fraudulent site setup to look like the real one.

-- Look for security indicators. All legitimate security retailers should protect your confidential information (even your login to their site) with encryption. Make sure that not only does the little padlock that indicates encryption appear in your browser window, but that the site that the security certificate is registered to matches the site that you are expecting to be buying from. If it doesn't, then assume that to be suspicious.

-- Do not shop from public Wi-Fi hotspots. Many of these networks either employ no encryption of your data or very weak encryption leaving you open for potential identity theft.

-- Do not use a computer that you are not familiar with/public computers to do your online shopping. Web browsers often store information entered onto web forms within their memory for easy reuse later. Someone could easily walk up to one of these available computers, go to a couple of common shopping sites and start writing down whatever information they can find.

Holiday shopping is supposed to be a fun time of year, but it also can be very hectic and stressful at the same time. As such, make sure that in your haste to find the best deals and the right gifts you also keep sensible browsing and shopping habits in mind. For all of the conveniences and speed that the web brings to holiday shopping, it also brings many potential risks.

Be safe! Have fun! Have a great holiday season!