GREENSBORO, N.C. — It's estimated about 57% of all US shoppers will buy at least one gift online. Some folks will buy all of their gifts online.
Whether you buy one thing or everything online, hackers want your info. To protect yourself you need to do two things: update your software on all devices and use your credit card.
WHY YOU NEED TO UPDATE THE SOFTWARE ON ALL YOUR DEVICES
"All those devices where you see those annoying messages about updating, what that's all about is security and so what you need to do is update your devices to the most to the latest protection and turn on your automatic updates," said Jen Easterly, Director of the Cyber-security and Infrastructure Security Agency.
You'll need to look in SETTINGS to put your devices on automatic update. And even though you may have it on, don't assume your device is updated. The reason this is so important is because these updates close holes in the system so hackers can't find a way in. Companies push updates to fix problems.
"There are literally millions of lines of code that are written to run these devices and small mistakes in the large amount of codes, the needle in the haystack, can cause serious security vulnerabilities," said Joseph Steinberg, Cyber Security expert.
WHY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS USE OUR CREDIT CARD FOR ONLINE SHOPPING
That's right, a credit card not a debit card. Why? Your credit card is just a charge that can be easily reversed. Your debit card is linked to your bank account and that means real money is out of your account. If you bought something off a scam website, the money may be as good as gone.