Online shopping is here to stay. Most purchases are made on the Internet these days. Accordingly, attention must be paid to the security of data. This applies not only to the stores, but also to the users of these stores. This article will tell you how to store online safely.
Online shopping is basically safe, as long as the store is trustworthy. However, personal data and especially payment details are logically requested when shopping online.
Where a lot of data is provided, the attempt at data theft or fraud is not far away. In principle, of course, certain requirements apply to online commerce in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For example, from a value of more than 30.00 euros must use a strong authentication model.
This can be two-factor authentication, for example. With an authenticator, online shopping automatically becomes more secure because there is no longer a fixed password. Instead, there is a new, automatically generated code every time you log in. This also changes every 30 seconds for added security.
However, you can still do certain things yourself to be on the safe side when shopping on the Internet.
Safe online shopping starts first and foremost with yourself. First and foremost, you should only shop on sites that you trust or that you know are reputable. Fraudsters don’t just look for sites where data is easy to grab. Fraudsters also operate sites themselves in order to steal data.
This also means that the site generally has secure encryption. You can tell this directly from the communication protocol. The protocol “http://” is outdated and no security can be guaranteed. Securely encrypted pages use the “https://” protocol.
It is also good to choose a method of payment that does not require you to provide credit card information directly. Methods such as PayPal or a transfer from the bank account are more secure than direct payment via credit card.
Get information about the vendor before placing an order. This is especially true for stores outside of the well-known online retailers. If you fall for a fakeshop, your money is gone and won’t come back. But the ordered goods will not come either.
There are certain seals of approval for stores on the Internet, such as the “Trusted Shops”, the TÜV seal “Safer Shopping” and the “EHI Geprüfter Online-Shop”. These stores are trustworthy and adhere to the specifications for safe online trading.
It is also important that online stores use protected data transmission. This includes a reference to the fact that data transmission is protected. Otherwise, the data on the pages is not secure.
In any case, only necessary data should be provided in online stores. Filling in the mandatory fields is quite sufficient. Online stores that ask for unnecessary data as mandatory fields should generally be suspect to you.
Online shopping is anchored in many people’s minds as a safe purchase. In fact, only very few people even think about how safe shopping over the Internet actually is. Yet there can be major security gaps that can have serious consequences.
You can make sure that your own online shopping is safe. Above all, you must make sure that you only store in online stores that comply with the legal requirements and whose secure handling of data is guaranteed.
