For some years now, even in Italy, the Christmas shopping season has an official start date: Black Friday. From that Friday full of offers kicks off the perfect gift for relatives and friends, often made online for reasons of comfort and convenience. However, this choice is not without risks and, in the Christmas rush, these could be even greater. For this reason, Kaspersky Lab decided to analyze the situation in a new report dedicated to this theme.
Kaspersky Lab and the risks of online purchases during the holidays
It is titled From festive fun to password panic- managing money online this Christmas and it is an analysis dedicated to the Christmas buying habits of the population. The activity that has carved out an important place in people’s habits, so much so as to be the second most widespread on the Internet after the exchange of emails.
Despite this, there are still many dangers to be bought online. 32% of the respondents in the report admitted that they have suffered a theft of bank credentials for this reason. Among these, about a quarter did not even manage to recover the stolen money.
This is mainly due to the difficulty users have in keeping track of their banking information on the web, augmented by the continued bustle of purchases at Christmas. For example, 48% of respondents do not remember what sites or applications have actually shared them. Also for this perhaps, there is a high number of people (almost half of the population) who fear that cybercriminals may have access to such data.
A system is to save this information on a device like your smartphone, so you can easily access it when needed. This choice, made by 29% of respondents, however, is highly dangerous. In the event of theft or loss of the phone, the damage could also be aggravated by withdrawals not authorized by the bank account.
Kaspersky Lab’s answer
Morten Lehn, General Manager Italy of Kaspersky Lab, said:
” The end of the year and the holiday season are a wonderful time, during which people buy many gifts for their family and friends. Nobody wants this moment to be ruined by any loss of money due to unsafe transactions and online scams. We should all pay close attention to our bank details and online payments, by not including our credentials on untrusted sites or making purchases online using non-secure devices. “
This is why Kaspersky Lab offers solutions dedicated to enhancing the security of your data on the web. An example is Kaspersky Security Cloud, which opens a secure browser every time you make a payment. Another possibility is the Kaspersky Password Manager which, as its name suggests, allows you to securely store access data of all types, from PINs to bank credentials.
For more information on Kaspersky Lab or to read the report From the official fun to password panic, we invite you to visit the official website.
