Three simple security tips for online shoppers

Nov 30, 2015 15:44 GMT  ·  By

The holidays season is upon us, and online shopping is about to reach its yearly peak, with more and more users turning to online e-commerce sites to find quick gifts for their friends and family.

According to an analysis carried out by Expert Market and using data provided by Statista’s Digital Market Outlook, we now have a general look at the worldwide online shopping market.

The results are interesting since the US and the UK are not leading the top 10 for once. As Expert Market has concluded, taking into account the number of online shopping transactions and the revenue per user, the top three is as follows: Hong Kong with $2,868 spent per user in online shopping, followed by Norway with $2,448, and Israel with $2,171.

The rest of the top ten is made up of the US, Denmark, the UK, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Ireland.

Be wary of holiday scams and shop security features

While the top 10 is an interesting tidbit of information to share online with your friends, we take it upon us to warn you about the dangers of online shopping around the holidays.

Since most cyber-criminals are interested in monetary gains, it is easier for them to take advantage of everyone's inclination towards online shopping in this period and carry out various types of scams and cyber-attacks.

When shopping online, you should always check for a few things. The first is the presence of HTTPS in the shop's URL. If you don't see it, don't shop there.

The second piece of advice we can give you is not to store any passwords for online shopping accounts except in the browser of your own computer. Criminals can carry out attacks on public terminals or other computers and steal recorded password information.

The third and final quick tip we can give you is to choose or change your online shopping account password with a more secure one. Since these shopping accounts are directly tied to your credit cards and banking accounts, you should take the time and put effort into remembering a stronger password than the one you use on Facebook.

Here's Expert Market's study, put together as a nice infographic:

How much shoppers around the world are spending online
How much shoppers around the world are spending online