Tuesday, November 22, 2011

1-2-3 Shop


Cyber Monday is now the biggest shopping day of the holiday season, and you can believe that shoppers and retailers aren’t the only ones paying attention.  With cyber-sales and cyber-shopping comes cybercrime. Increased online activity means consumers and their PCs will have increased exposure to a variety of undesirable threats – viruses, malware, spyware and more.

Have no fear - there are many ways the 40 percent of consumers recently surveyed by Valpak who plan to shop online this holiday season can keep themselves safe during Cyber Monday, including these five, easy-to-follow tips below:

·         Keep it Clean: To prepare for increased online time, conduct a thorough PC cleaning. SlimCleaner, a free, downloadable application from SlimWare Utilities, allows users to eliminate unnecessary adware and malware from their PCs. The application can be run post-Cyber Monday as well, to ensure prime PC health after heavy browsing.

·         Be Proactive:  Prevent problems and limit exposure to threats. Only make purchases on secure, password-protected networks.

·         Go Solo: Choose one credit card to use for all Cyber Monday purchases. This will limit and consolidate damage if personal information is stolen online.

·         Keep Current: Install the latest version of anti-virus protection to keep PCs safe from viruses and threats. AVG Technologies provides a free, easy-to-download anti-virus application, which will keep PCs safe from threats, especially when browsing unfamiliar sites.

·         Be Your Own Sheriff: Regularly check bank account activity to ensure no random purchases have been made. Immediately report any unusual activity to a bank representative and freeze the account to prevent additional fraudulent charges.

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