Cyber Monday has surpassed Black Friday in terms of sales, you are preferring to shop the deals in the comfort of your own home rather than facing the masses, this means that your card details and personal information is being used a lot more in order to complete purchases.

Many of you may wake up on this Tuesday with a wallet ache, maybe you needed that extra washing machine or maybe you were just in such a frenzy, clicking “add to cart” that you don’t even know why you bought it.

Now that the dust has settled and your credit card is maxed, it’s time to do some security damage control to make 100% sure that you are breach free.

The landscape of cyber threats changes daily, with hackers coming up with new advanced ways to make their lucrative living at your expense.

While you are making sure you are keeping your computer secure, office hygiene is second nature and the shredder at work and home is your best friend. Is that all for nothing if you are not securing your mobile device?

The answer is yes. These days, the information that is on your computer is usually linked to your phone; email, bank details and other personal information. Is this making your phone your new worst enemy? It doesn’t have to be.

I know it seems crazy that cellphones can now be hacked, but something to remember is that anything that connects to the internet is vulnerable to being breached. All aspects of your cyber life need to be secure because if one isn’t, the security for the others will be futile.

In previous blogs I have discussed phishing and how hackers use social engineering via email or in person to trick you into divulging private information. That is not the only way they do it, they also use phone calls. This way of scamming is called Vishing.

I know it seems hard to believe that you can fall victim via the telephone even though you know that you shouldn’t give out any information to just anyone but just like the other form’s hackers use, they rely on you being caught off guard and they make themselves sound so believable that you willingly proceed with whatever it is they are requesting. They use spoofed numbers or caller ID so it is not detected as spam or unknown, it is a similar technique to email spoofing, so that you answer the call.

They may not even contact you to get your personal information, they can find out about you via social media portals or off a list from a previous breach, and call your service provider and stage a call pretending to be a family member and attempt to get passwords changed or acquire more details about you.

It’s crazy to think that it is November already, you always find yourself saying you can’t believe how quickly a year has flown by. This year has not only flown by but been an extremely busy one in the cyber security sector, hackers don’t take any holidays, neither do our cyber security specialists!

 November brings along two events that if not practiced correctly, become a hacker’s paradise.

 If you haven’t guessed it already, I am referring to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A shopper’s dream, deals galore and excitement that can lead to security’s best practices going out the window!

Cyber criminals take advantage of this by equipping themselves with numerous phishing scams and malware, waiting to lure unsuspecting and eager shoppers for deals via social media and online.