Rising Number of Online Shoppers could Lure Fraudsters this Holiday

Webroot Software announced on November 22, 2007 the findings of its new research, "State of Internet Security: Protecting Consumers Online". The main highlight of the research is that there would be a global increase in online shopping during the approaching holiday that would be accompanied with threats to online customers.

According to the report, an incredible number of people using the Internet were not doing enough to protect the privacy of their personal information at the time of online shopping. This absence of precaution could make the consumers vulnerable to cyber crime.

Nick Banks, EMEA Managing Director at Webroot, said that with modern cyber criminals being financially motivated, the Christmas holiday is a key season for making money. Vnunet published Bank's statement on November 22, 2007. Banks said that a large number of online purchasers were using their debit and credit cards without being aware of the security risks they entail, and this means opening opportunities for cyber criminals.

In its report, Webroot further recorded that spyware would spike 173% from October to December 2007. Of this, 20% would involve new malicious codes. This implies cyber thieves are introducing their best of the new malware this season, Banks said.

According to another Webroot report, one in every seven respondents around the world had reportedly been victim to online fraud such as stolen bank account or credit card information. This figure was even worse in United States where one in five shoppers on the Internet had fallen for online fraud of a similar kind or other identity theft.

But on the other side of the picture, a country which is most safe for online consumers is Japan possibly because people in that country shop with the use of mobile phones and other devices that are properly secured under the wireless providers' services. Surprisingly, 40% of the Japanese shoppers on the Web who operate on Windows computers have no anti-spyware defenses.

A recent safety study by McAfee/NCSA found that 78% of the US PCs have no protection against hackers and 64% of the country's people do not know if a site they intend to visit is safe enough.

Related article: Rising Use of Internet in China Could Lead to More Security Attacks

» SPAMfighter News - 12/4/2007