With the holidays past and a new year upon us, new records were set for the use of online shopping. 9.8 billion dollars was spent online shopping on black friday, and 54% of those purchases were made using a smartphone. It’s safe to say that online shopping has changed the way we engage with the shopping experience. Consumers praise the ease of access and wide variety of options, but this comes at a price. With endless choices of products and services available at our fingertips we must remember that ecommerce works both ways and each transaction comes with risk of identity theft.
Did you participate in online shopping this holiday season? If so, who did you shop from? Whenever you make a purchase online, you are giving up your personal information and it is no longer yours to control, whether it’s photos of your family, the email that you use to log into Amazon, or even your credit card information. If it’s on the internet, it’s likely already circulating in places you didn’t intend it to.
But what can we do about it? We all know that we need to have strong passwords for our online shopping portals. But what if we took it a step further to ensure no information can be tied back to us? Luke Secrist, CEO of BuddoBot, recommends creating an “online identity,” or an online name and email address you can use for shopping. “By creating and using a non-identifying email, solely for online shopping, you reduce the chances of compromising your personal data and critical accounts that are linked to your primary email address,” says Secrist.
Buddobot is a team of professional hackers that specialize in authentic offensive cybersecurity. By emulating real-world attacks continuously, they are able to craft custom solutions, utilizing true-to-life attack vectors to identify and mitigate potential security breaches. The team of professional hackers at Buddobot shared with us that phishing attacks are some of the most common threats to the everyday consumer. An email as simple as a 30% off coupon could leave you vulnerable, and if a hacker could get into your personal email account, they could have access to your most sensitive and personal information.
“A great deal of successful phishing is centered around online shopping. By having a shopping-based email and training yourself into a no-click mentality you drastically reduce your susceptibility. If that email is ever compromised, you burn it down and create a new one,” emphasizes Secrist.
There are many benefits an online persona can have that go beyond cybersecurity. A fake email address can also create a designated space for marketing and spam emails, resulting in a calmer inbox and a calmer mind. Could a fake email address really be the solution? Secrist goes on to say, “This simple yet effective layer of separation acts as a barrier, not only safeguarding you from annoying spam emails that nobody likes to see but also keeping your important emails and data in a completely different account.”
When creating your new email persona, be sure to leave out any personal information such as your real name or phone number, and make your password difficult to remember. In addition, opt out of linking a recovery email or phone number for added security. This computer persona will be the barrier between companies you do business with and your sensitive data. There are also additional tricks you can utilize to see what brands are selling your information. 2024 is the year of smarter shopping and smarter surfing by protecting your online identity. What will your new internet persona be?
