Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These are two of the largest shopping days every year, and every year, you hear security experts warn about the dangers of bad links and malware-infested emails promising the best online deals. Although it is the same old story year after year, it continues to be relevant, because let’s face it, it works.
While being diligent with your online shopping is important and necessary, there are a few other steps that you can take to help protect your information throughout the holidays. Over the next few days and weeks, many people will find themselves traveling to visit with friends and family to celebrate. Use these tips to help stay safe this year.
Turn Off Your Wifi
WiFi is a wonderful thing for mobile phones and tablets. It allows you to connect to other devices that are not on your cell carrier network and helps you establish connections when signal strength would otherwise be insufficient.
WiFi also helps you save on data by passing some services over the WiFi connection rather than your carrier’s network. Unless you have an unlimited data plan, it can be easy to creep up on your data limit while streaming music on the road, tweeting about how embarrassing families can be on Twitter, or posting the perfect Thanksgiving plate on Instagram.
Charges for going over your limit are not cheap, so it is certainly tempting to soften your data load with WiFi. Those savings could be used for Black Friday shopping! However, those savings may be costing you are more than you realize. It is important to be mindful of what networks you connect to with your devices so you can stay safe this holiday season.
If a WiFi network is open without a password or using poor authentication, what you type or any data you send from one of your devices, whether it be a text message, email, or username and password, can be seen by others on that network.
Cybercriminals are known to setup hotspots in public places for others to connect to and name them appropriately. For example, if you stop at a fast food chain, you may find a Fast Food Chain Guest WiFi.
Also, check your device settings before you leave. Even if you decide to stay away from WiFi networks, some phones are set to connect to one if you are in range automatically. If that’s the case, you may find yourself on an unsecured network without even knowing it.