KINGSTON, Jamaica — ‘Tis the season to be jolly, not a time to put your data in jeopardy.

The e-commerce market is booming in Latin America. According to eMarketer, online sales reached nearly $50 billion in profits in 2015, showing a 23.9 per cent increase year-to-year. Family members, friends and co-workers prowl the Internet for the perfect gift at an affordable price as the end-of-the-year holidays approach.

Despite the festive cheer, shoppers should be concerned with their online safety and businesses should take cybersecurity precautions to improve parameter defences that prevent breaches.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and the post-Christmas exchange period (first two weeks of January) trigger the most shopper-targeted attacks in Latin America and the Caribbean. Meanwhile other large gift-giving holidays like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day also increase cybercrime.

Most common threats during the holidays

It is common to send greeting cards (eCards) as inexpensive gifts online. However, these emails and links could be malware in disguise or lead to pages containing viruses, Trojans and spyware.

Never open anything received from an unknown source and be cautious if a friend or family member sends you a message with a click-bait title, obvious spelling mistakes or “hot deal” promise. If you want to sendeCards, first research reputable sites that create them. There are plenty of custom and animated versions that are also safe.

Five easy tips to follow while online shopping

1. Avoid making transactions on non-personal computers: Never make purchases in cybercafés, your workplace or in a friend or neighbour’s house.

These computers can keep web cookies, record your online behaviour, save your password and expose you to public Wi-Fi networks that can be hacked.

2. Have anti-malware and anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date: If you are a “bargain shopper” who is always looking online for deals, this advice is especially relevant. E-commerce websites can include pop-up windows, spyware advertisements and automatic downloads. One wrong click and your computer can get a virus.

Routinely updating your software mitigates the risk of infection because new threats enter the cybersphere every day.

3. Check credit card and bank account activity frequently during active shopping periods: The more you use your card, the more likely you are to have its information stolen. However, if you get a phone call from your bank asking you to identify yourself do not share personal information. It is safer to check your online banking page to see if there is an issue with your card. You can also use a credit reporting agency to receive alarms about suspicious activity in your bank accounts, or even a notice if someone takes out a loan or tries to make a financial transaction in your name.

4. Leave websites that require more than the standard transaction information: To make a purchase you usually provide your name, address and credit card number. Any website that asks for any other details, like your social security number or IRS return number, is most likely fraudulent.

5. Avoid “too good to be true” offers: Never download coupons and gift cards or click on “deal” links provided in unknown emails and websites. These could contain malware and be used to steal your personal information.

If you receive a code for a website to apply once your purchase is in the shopping cart, that should be legitimate and is the safest ways for companies to apply discounts and coupons. Major retail outfits know this and use this technique more and more often for their buyers.

Big retailers vs small businesses

There are two very common attacks on web application services that vendors use to have ecommerce websites. Cross-site scripting and Structured Query Language (SQL) injection are attacks where hackers write commands in the URL of a site to confuse the web server. When this happens, the website reveals stored data, which can include transaction history, credit card information, addresses and client profile databases.

Most well known online retailers have mechanisms in place to protect user information, records, transactions, etc. These key components include next generation firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, anti-malware and anti-virus gateways and web application firewalls, to name a few. Unfortunately, small businesses do not have the budget to outsource e-commerce security, exposing their websites to breaches. Thus, it is safer to shop at known retail outfits when making online purchases. If you are making a purchase through a smaller online company, make sure that the traffic is encrypted (HTTPS) and has some type of third-party commerce verification seals to assure a legitimate transaction.

This holiday season, prioritise your security over a bargain price.

Shannon Curran

Shannon Curran is Major Account Director of the Caribbean for Fortinet, an American Multinational Corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale California which markets cybersecurity software, appliances and services.