How to enjoy a merry and cyber-safe holiday shopping season
From children’s toys to Apple iPhones, some of the most common holiday gifts are expected to be in short supply this season. Which means cyber criminals will be hard at work on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, trying to entice desperate customers to cut corners on cyber security to buy that hard-to-get gift. Don’t do it.
Follow these tips from Norton while doing your online holiday shopping this season.
- Do your shopping with Santa-approved (in other words reputable) businesses: Better to avoid holiday shopping “deals” with companies you don’t recognize. Cyber criminals will create realistic-looking business websites to advertise hard-to-find items, stealing your financial information.
- Ho-ho-hold on before you click on a link: Rather than clicking on a link in an email or text, go directly to a retailer's website to find the hottest Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals. The same goes for promo codes offering free shipping or discounts. Don't click links to copy the code — enter it directly on the retailer's website instead.
- Look for the lock: When shopping at smaller shops or independent retailers, look for the lock icon in the top left corner of the browser bar. That indicates a secure site, which uses encryption to keep your data hidden from cyber crooks.
- Stay home for the holidays to make your online purchases: Cyber crooks can hack public Wi-Fi and steal your passwords, billing information and other data. Wait until you get home, using your private Wi-Fi, to make those purchases. Plus, always use strong passwords. Consider using a password generator.
- Santa’s always watching. You should be, too: During the holiday shopping season, make a point of checking your banking and credit card accounts on a regular basis. Visit the Federal Trade Commission for info on disputing fraudulent charges.
Take these steps to enjoy a merry and cyber-safe holiday shopping season.
Black Hills Energy Blog
Home is more than the place you live.
It’s that warm feeling when you smell banana bread baking in the oven. It’s snuggling up for just one more bedtime book after the nightly bath routine. It’s the peace of knowing that no matter what, there’s someone there to help.
In a…
May is National Electric Safety Month and sunny days are ahead of us. And we could all use a little sunshine in our lives right now.
As you venture out for your favorite summer projects and activities, make sure to stay safe with these electric safety tips.
1. Look up
Always look up before…
Current events have us all experiencing more anxiety than usual. But if you can get out to enjoy the fresh air of your yard, you have a mood booster right at your fingertips: nature.
There’s something about digging in the cool dirt on a warm spring day that can lift your spirit. In the book “The…
“Do I need to unplug my laptop at night?”
All your work-from-home energy efficiency questions answered
If your dining room table looks like this, chances are you’ve been working from home. And that means that you likely have more electronics around than usual. Here’s your guide to making sure you…
Did you know?
More information has been shared online in the past 2 years than in all of human history!
And now, with many professionals and students working from home, data centers are more critical than ever. You can click here to see how we are actively monitoring the coronavirus (COVID-…
We've almost made it to spring! Sure, there might still be snow in the forecast, but the evenings are getting longer and the kids have started to count down to the last day of school.
One of our favorite traditions is spring cleaning. Filling the house with fresh air and purging it of the winter…
February. The longest short month of the year.
It’s only 29 days, but it’s hard not to look longingly at next month’s promise of the first day of Spring and longer sun-lit evenings.
The seasonal limbo has us wearing sweaters but dreaming of swimming pools.
Your furnace is in limbo too. It’s been…
A lot of life happens online. Shopping. Banking. Socializing. Discovering time-intensive crafts to feel guilty for not doing with your kids because who has time to clean up a kitchen covered in Elmer’s glue and food coloring anyway?
Whether you’re conducting serious business or simply trying to…
When the temperature outside drops, the temperature inside tends to rise. But that doesn’t mean utility bills need to rise, too.
A programmable thermostat is a simple tool that homeowners can use throughout the winter to help save energy and money in their homes.
Programmable thermostats are…
We’ve all needed to create a new normal this year, and that means our habits and New Year’s resolutions may look a little different as we eagerly welcome 2021. Habits can be tricky things. Sometimes they’re easy to establish and stick to. Other times, it seems like no matter how hard you try, they…
Put a new twist on this holiday tradition (and save money and energy while you’re at it).
I love a good office Secret Santa. Your coworkers go from friendly team members to covert agents, sneaking around with gift bags of coffee, gourmet chocolate, bath bombs and sports memorabilia. Megan from…
When it came to lighting up his home for the holidays, Clark Griswold stopped it nothing to make sure his place was the brightest on the block.
Griswold, who was the star of the 1989 holiday classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, was determined to have a “fun, old-fashioned, family…