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EPR Archived News |
Online Shopping - Employer and Security Issues
Released on: December 08, 2010, 4:30 am As Christmas is nearly upon us again, the last minute rush to buy the remaining presents is intensifying. But according the APACS, the UK payments association (apacs.org.uk), 85% shoppers find the high street too crowded and stressful. Therefore many of us are increasingly using the internet to buy our presents; it is easy, quick and you do not have to endure the cold weather or long queues. Also, the presents are delivered to your door within one or two days and some are even gift wrapped in the process. We are spending online at an average rate of £4.57 million per hour in the run-up to Christmas – (IRMG - Interactive Media in Retail Group - img.org ). “38% of those sales have taken place outside of traditional shopping hours, either before 9am or after 6pm.” That surely means that 62% of those sales are placed during working hours. This is causing information security experts like commissum to fear that many shoppers will be using their company’s time and resources to do their shopping in working hours. This can open organisations up to a number of risks such as loss of productivity, reduction of available bandwidth and increase of personal email which can lead to more spam and phishing attacks. Companies are therefore advised to provide employee with awareness training such as provided by commissum. But if the internet is such a convenient way to buy your last minute presents why aren’t we all using the online shops? After all, the online market is currently £ 1.6 billion of a potential £ 5 to £ 6 billion to be spent leading up to Christmas. Apparently one in three of us are avoiding the online shops because of the perceived dangers of fraud, commissum are therefore helping online shops to keep their systems secure with their PCI DSS related services. At commissum we often see evidence of users not taking simple measures to reduce these risks. Neither are they aware of the risks of their actions while purchasing goods online. This is backed-up by statistics from Card watch (cardwatch.org.uk) concluding that 1 in 8 online shoppers fail to logout a shopping site and 1 in 4 online shoppers do not check whether a website is safe and secure. We think that online retailers could do more to promote safe online shopping giving simple advice while guiding online shoppers through the payment process. They could remind online shoppers to make sure their computer is protected with up-to-date virus protection and that the firewall is activated; that their computer browser is set to the highest level of security notification and monitoring. Ask online shoppers to check whether they can see the “https:” at the beginning of the website address or to ensure that the security icon – the locked padlock or unbroken key symbol – is showing in the bottom of their browser window. And tell online shoppers to log-out of the website when they are finished and to store their credit card safely. Providing general awareness on safe online shopping will create understanding of the dangers involved and will increase consumer knowledge and confidence to shop more online. It will enable us to avoid spending hours in overcrowded high streets and in doing so reduce our stress levels. Visit the websites cardwatch.org.uk, banksafeonline.org.uk and getsafeonline.org, for more information about how to shop and bank safely online. With 20 years of experience, commissum is adept at
offering practical advice and recommending cost-effective solutions, to deliver a
joined-up, coherent approach to protecting an organisation's information assets. Contact Details: Commissum, t: 0845 644 3217
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