In our digital age, online payments have become an essential part of daily life, offering convenience but also raising concerns about security. In this article, we will unravel the world of online payments, exploring what they encompass, the potential security risks involved, and most importantly, how you can safeguard your card details from prying eyes. Join us to learn the tricks of secure online transactions, ensuring your financial information remains protected in the virtual realm.
Possible Ways You Can Pay Online
The following are ways in which you might pay online:
- Booking a ticket to a festival. Event tickets are often booked and paid for online.
- Booking travel to a work event Travel tickets are now often booked and paid for online.
- Subscribing to a new online service to use in your department. Many online applications and services are used across businesses.
Risks of Online Payments
The following are ways in which your online payment details could become exposed:
- Your device being infected with spyware. Spyware is a form of malware that tracks what you do on your device and what information you enter. Spyware programs harvest your online banking details from your device.
- Paying online over an insecure network. Insecure networks do not protect data sent over them, and potentially allowing it to be hijacked by a cybercriminal.
- A site where you have saved your details becomes targeted by a breach. Any saved payment details could become exposed.
- What could a cybercriminal do with your online payment details?
- Shop online – With your payment details, a cybercriminal would be free to go on a shopping spree at your expense.
- Sell them on the dark web – Exposed payment details are often sold on the dark web to the highest bidder.
How You Might Reduce the Risks of Online Payments
You might help reduce the risk of a cybercriminal gaining access to your payment details by:
- Avoiding paying online when using insecure or public Wi-Fi networks. Insecure networks could allow your payment details to be harvested.
- Removing card details from services you no longer use. The less places you have your card details stored, the less likely they are to be exposed in a breach.
- Ensuring any website, you make a payment on is legitimate and has https in the address bar. HTTPS ensures that your connection is encrypted, reducing the chances of an intruder being able to view your card details.
- What might happen if the network you use to connect to the internet is not secure? Your payment card details could be hijacked by a cybercriminal. Cyber criminals often scan insecure public networks for payment information.
- If when decide to do some online shopping, you notice the site you are browsing has a web address starting with ‘HTTP’. Please avoid putting your payment details on the site. You should only enter sensitive information on sites you can trust and that are encrypted with TLS.
- Please note that even though ‘https://’ at the start of a web address signifies a secure connection between your browser and the website, it is important to be aware that websites may still be bogus even if the connection is secure.
- Updating your device’s operating system with the latest updates helps keep up security. New OS updates contain security patches that help keep your device safe from malware.
- Running regular anti-malware scans. Running regular anti-malware scans is crucial for detecting and removing malicious software to protect your system from potential security threats.