MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1318513
5 Best Practices for 2020 Shopping Checklist listeners may be familiar with some of the following tips, but it’s always a good idea to review best practices every so often—and especially around this time of year, when scams and cyberattacks are at their peak. Here are 5 things you need to be doing to make sure you’re safe when you shop online this season: 1 - Use secure connections You don’t want to be sending unencrypted data over the web while you’re shopping, and you definitely don’t want to be conducting financial transactions over an insecure public network. That’s why you’ll want to make sure that the connections you use to do your shopping are as secure as possible. For individual websites, look for the lock icon in the web browser bar, which means that the website is using the more secure HTTPS data transfer protocol. In addition, if you’re using a public Wi-Fi network, bear in mind that it might not be secure. As a rule, you should avoid conducting any important business or transmitting financial details over public Wi-Fi if possible. If you absolutely have to use a public network, then use a VPN to make sure your connection is both private and secure (if you haven’t used a VPN before, check out our complete guide to VPNs for Mac users for more information). 2 - Pay it safe The holidays are prime time for financial fraud, so pay attention to how you pay! Only shop on websites that offer secure payment options (i.e. credit cards or PayPal) that will allow you to dispute a payment if an issue arises. If you have the option, consider using an e-wallet payment service such as Apple Pay for even better security. Additionally, if you aren’t that familiar with the website or company you’re thinking of buying from, take a moment to check if they’ve been verified by a third-party organization like the Better Business Bureau, VeriSign, or DigiCert. 3 - Follow cybersecurity best practices During this time of year, cyberthreats spike considerably, and this year has been worse than usual. In the coming weeks, it’s more important than ever to do all of those little things that we hope you’ve been doing all year long! Since you’re going to be online more than usual, start by taking the time to run all available software updates, so that your system doesn’t have unpatched (and potentially exploitable) vulnerabilities. In addition, be on the lookout for malicious emails, and take a moment to review some basic tips for how to spot a phishing email. Lastly, make sure you’re using an up-to-date malware detection tool for your computer: keyloggers and spyware are hard to spot on your own, and they can turn into serious dangers if they manage to infect your system at a time when you’re typing in credit card numbers and passwords more frequently than usual! 4 - Do your research If you’re buying from an independent seller, try to read reviews from past buyers and do some basic research about them in order to minimize issues that you might face. Generally speaking, if you’re buying any service or product online, try to read reviews from active users or from people who have purchased the item themselves, and keep an eye out for any red flags or recurring issues that other customers seem to have experienced. 5 - Use strong passwords Weak or reused passwords put you a data breach away from disaster, because they mean that bad guys can use credentials stolen in one breach to compromise multiple accounts elsewhere. At this point, everyone should be using safe passwords on all of their accounts. If this seems daunting, then use a password manager to make it easy — and remember that the new Safari now has secure password generation, password management, and data breach monitoring capabilities that put it on par with full-featured, standalone password manager apps. For even more secure logins, consider turning on two-factor authentication for important (or better yet, all) accounts.