It’s the holiday season, and that means most of us will be doing a lot of our shopping online.
Even if you are shopping on a legitimate website, you can still put yourself at risk. Here are five things to consider before making your next online purchase, to keep you and your money safe.
1. Use a password manager.
In order to protect your personal data, it's important to come up with a secure password for every account you open. Password managers like Dashlane or LastPass identify how secure your passwords are and also allow you to store all your passwords for the sites you shop on the most. They also notify you of websites that experience a data breach.
2. Look for the padlock symbol.
This symbol in the address bar before the URL means the website is secure and safe for use.
3. Keep your software updated.
Yes, it’s easy to press try again tomorrow on the install update button, but they do help with keeping viruses at bay.
4. Don't save your credit card information —even if it’s on a site you shop frequently.
If the website is ever breached, you’ll be thankful you never pressed save.
5. Stay on secure WiFi networks.
Public WiFi is the perfect place for hackers to steal your information.
