Galveston County, TX

With Cyber Monday sales now over 10 billion dollars, scammers and hackers will be on the lookout to take advantage in the rise in transactions. Follow these tips to keep you safer while shopping on the web.

• Use only trusted networks. Public networks like those at your work, hotels, or cafes can be risky. Third parties can ease drop on your internet traffic easily on unsecured networks like these.

• Check for the HTTPS lock. In every modern browser there is a padlock symbol before the URL. This symbol should be locked and the URL should begin with "HTTPS://". This will help prevent man in the middle attacks.

• Use a VPN. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. This can help to secure your data throughout the web and add an extra layer of privacy.

• Make a 16 character password. Make this password complex. This means it should have uppercase, lowercase, number, and special characters in it. The longer and more random it is the better. Password length strengthens exponentially not linearly, meaning that a password twice the length will not take twice the time but exponentially longer. 16 characters or above is recommended.

• Do not reuse passwords.  If you use the same password for your bank as you do for your social media sites, you make yourself vulnerable. A malicious person would only need to get one password and be able to compromise a lot of accounts.

• Check for fraud. Credit monitoring and regular checks of your credit history are recommended. If you have had your identity stolen, the Federal Trade Commission   can help with a checklist to try and secure your identity.

• Use a credit card. Often credit cards have more fraud protections than debit cards. Using a single card dedicated to purchases is best. This way you can cancel this card and still have access to your debit and other credit cards in the meantime.

• Check the URL. Clicking on hyperlinks is a staple of internet life, but you should check everything you click. Hovering over a link without clicking will show a preview in the lower left. Make sure that this URL looks legitimate and from the domain you expect.

• Update your device. Cyber security is an arms race between security professionals and hackers. Systems need patches to ensure that any vulnerabilities that are found are secured. Updating your devices and software when the manufacturer sends one out is essential to helping keep your devices safe.

• Install an antivirus. Antivirus is a standard on most computers with 80% of computers having one, but your phone is just a pocket computer. Your phone needs an antivirus too and only about half of phones have one installed.