FIU Expert Offers Advice to Stay Safe on Cyber Monday

If you hate to pass up a good buy online, Cyber Monday is the day when the holiday shopping season officially comes to your home computer, tablet or smartphone.

The attraction for consumers is obvious. You can score some of the best prices of the year without having to hunt down a parking spot or wait in line with fellow shoppers.

But, as with any shopping, the buyer must still beware that certain deals may not be what they appear to be, according to a Florida International expert on cybersecurity.

“The major problem on Cyber Monday would be the offers and deals that will be sent to you via email or via ads,” explained Dr. Kemal Akkaya, associate professor in FIU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“You need to be very careful and should not click on those links unless you know the sender,” he told Patch.

Akkaya cautioned that emails and ads are the easiest way that hackers can install malware on your device or steal your personal information.

Instead, Akkaya suggested that consumers go directly to the website being advertised in the email or ad by searching for the store's official website rather than clicking on a link in an email.

The same basic advice holds true whether consumers are shopping from a computer, tablet or smartphone.

“The only difference is that we use apps on those (tablets and smartphone) devices and those can be downloaded from anywhere on the web,” he said. “We just need to make sure that we download them from the authentic stores (i.e., AppStore and Google Play).”

That's not generally a problem in the case of well-known retailers.

“But as long as you are using apps of the known stores (e.g., Walmart or Amazon) then there is no difference in terms of buying from your phone or laptop,” he said.

Once on the store website or app, make sure that the merchant offers a secure online checkout to protect your payment information.

“You should be able to see the lock sign on your browser meaning that the transactions will be encrypted and authenticated,” he explained.

The lock symbol indicates that the merchant is using a secure protocol. You can also identify whether a page is secure by the letters “HTTPS” at the beginning of the URL address.

“If 'HTTP' is used instead of 'HTTPS,' do not purchase anything from that website,” he added.

Akkaya warned that public WiFi hotspots should be avoided for holiday shopping.

“Do not shop on public WiFi even though it is password protected,” he said, adding that consumers should use different passwords for each online store.