Protecting yourself from online cyber attacks

[RonaldJames]

While I was googling about the online shopping pros and cons, I had come across a blog "3 tips to protect your payment during online purchases", https://nci.ca/3-tips-to-protect-your-payments-during-online-purchases/ . It has the tips and tricks to safeguard ourselves from the unexpected crimes.
1. Avoid phishing by manually clicking the website portal.
2. Ensure that the payment site is using http prefix
3. Use a low credit limit credit card.
Is anyone using any kind of precautions or strategies before doing online purchase? What do you think, is it safe to have online purchasing?

 

[L&LD]

Correction: use HTTPS (not HTTP).

The only precautions I take is to not do it. People who regularly buy things online have many, many more cc issues than I have had (ever).

 

[System Error Message]

Those 3 steps alone dont help. For example your DNS could be hijacked to point to the phishing site so even typing the URL in will not help.

What you need us a good router/UTM, use a service like openDNS and enforce protection on your LAN so that things like DNS and NTP will use the router instead of going straight to internet for requesting. The router needs to be kept secure too as a hacked router will be disastrous. Use good firewalls on your router and with a configurable firewall you should blacklist an input attempt and block forward to it as well. I keep catching google and facebook attempting to hack me aside from the usual IPs that keep scanning and bot crawling about.

 

[sfx2000]

1. Avoid phishing by manually clicking the website portal.
2. Ensure that the payment site is using HTTP prefix
3. Use a low credit limit credit card.

And most importantly - you are the firewall with these items...

(btw- item 2 above, make sure it's https, and have a current/patched browser and operating system)

 

[sfx2000]

Might consider spending some time to review the course below - it's free from DeVry...

It's a couple of hours long, but lots of good stuff inside...

https://www.udemy.com/cyber-security/

 

[RonaldJames]

And most importantly - you are the firewall with these items...

(btw- item 2 above, make sure it's https, and have a current/patched browser and operating system)

Sorry, that was a mistake. Thank you for your suggestion.

 

[RMerlin]

Don't have any other tab open at the same time in your browser, and once you're done, completely close your browser before visiting any other site.

See what your credit card emitter's policy is concerning frauds. Over here, most of them will give you a zero-responsibility in case of fraud, meaning they will refund you any fraudulent transaction. If you can't get that, having a separate, lower-limit credit card might be a good idea indeed.

Avoid storing your CC information in any form-filler plugin. While this might seem a no-brainer, there's still a lot of those forms that specifically offer the ability to "securely" store your CC data. Doesn't matter if that data is encrypted, there's still a risk that a malicious site might be able to trick the add-on into giving up that information. Manually type it, don't copy/paste either.

Is anyone using any kind of precautions or strategies before doing online purchase? What do you think, is it safe to have online purchasing?

These days, even shopping with a physical card can be just as dangerous, with card skimmers, malicious stores/employees stealing your info, RFID readers remotely stealing card info, etc... If I don't fully trust an online site, I try to use Paypal if possible, as this requires you to login to Paypal to authorize the transaction, adding a layer of security (make sure that the seller does not leave a recurring payment in your Paypal account!).

I wish that Verified by Visa (and the Mastercard equivalent - forgot the name) were mandatory for online purchases, especially over a certain amount.

 

[System Error Message]

Don't have any other tab open at the same time in your browser, and once you're done, completely close your browser before visiting any other site.

See what your credit card emitter's policy is concerning frauds. Over here, most of them will give you a zero-responsibility in case of fraud, meaning they will refund you any fraudulent transaction. If you can't get that, having a separate, lower-limit credit card might be a good idea indeed.

Avoid storing your CC information in any form-filler plugin. While this might seem a no-brainer, there's still a lot of those forms that specifically offer the ability to "securely" store your CC data. Doesn't matter if that data is encrypted, there's still a risk that a malicious site might be able to trick the add-on into giving up that information. Manually type it, don't copy/paste either.



These days, even shopping with a physical card can be just as dangerous, with card skimmers, malicious stores/employees stealing your info, RFID readers remotely stealing card info, etc... If I don't fully trust an online site, I try to use Paypal if possible, as this requires you to login to Paypal to authorize the transaction, adding a layer of security (make sure that the seller does not leave a recurring payment in your Paypal account!).

I wish that Verified by Visa (and the Mastercard equivalent - forgot the name) were mandatory for online purchases, especially over a certain amount.

Paypal is untrustworthy. They refused to refund for a fake phone from ebay. In the UK customer protection for paypal/ebay is pretty much non existant but a lot of people dont know that in the UK you are supposed to go to the cops despite what ebay/paypal would say. In the american continent protection for online stuff is stricter but its also because the feds have wiretapped everyones internet and fakery is a big deal as big american companies lose money from it. I think even in america you are supposed to go to the cops as well if you get a fake and are supposed to get refunded. Paying with visa debit is better as you can see the transactions that happen and you can report fraud for refund.

Both ebay/paypal and aliexpress are deep in the imitation business. They know many users sell fake items but they dont do anything about it unless asked because of profit. I wouldnt trust them with my money and have stopped using any of them for years. Also paypal will take a significant surcharge if you dont use your card, if you debit from your account directly.

 

[sfx2000]

I wish that Verified by Visa (and the Mastercard equivalent - forgot the name) were mandatory for online purchases, especially over a certain amount.

Not sure how things are going up north - but here in the US, the Chip and PIN rollout has been fairly poor - many now have the terminals in place, but few can process the chip elements in the newer cards due to back-office delays... been a real mess down here...

 

[RMerlin]

Not sure how things are going up north - but here in the US, the Chip and PIN rollout has been fairly poor - many now have the terminals in place, but few can process the chip elements in the newer cards due to back-office delays... been a real mess down here...

RFID support is quite widespread here (where you insert the card in the terminal, and enter your PIN). What is less common but gradually starting to appear is the tap-to-pay service. My grocery accepts it as long the transaction is under 100$. It would be quite practical to pay for things such as lunch, but personally I have a problem in paying my 5$ Tim Horton sandwich with a credit card, as I know how expensive credit card processing can be for merchants...

Montreal's mass transit system switched to an RFID card a couple of years ago, so people are used to the concept by now.