There are so many things you can do online. On the internet, you can purchase groceries, buy clothes, shop for a gift, or pay your bills. However, despite the conveniences that the internet offers, online transactions come with risks and dangers.
Tips For Convenient And Safe Online Transactions
As more people shift to virtual activities, cybercrime cases also increase. If you want to avoid the dangers of online transactions and prevent becoming a victim of cybercrimes, you should continue reading this blog. Check out the following tips for safe online transactions and apply them when you make an online purchase or payment:
1. Create Complicated Passwords And Change Them Regularly
It’s bad practice to use passwords that are easy to guess. Having an easy-to-guess password equates to telling the whole world that you want to get hacked.
Remember, passwords are intended to keep your accounts and sensitive information highly secured. When creating a password, use a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, digits, and symbols. Also, make sure to change them regularly. Doing so will lower the risk of your online accounts being accessed and stolen. And if you have a lot of passwords and online accounts, consider getting a password manager app or program for Safe Online Transactions.
Here’s another thing that you should remember: using one password across several different sites and accounts is a major risk. All your accounts can become compromised in a flash if you only use a single password. If one of the sites where you have an account got hacked and your account’s password there becomes public, anyone will then have easy access to all of your other online accounts.
2. Utilize Electronic Signatures
Nowadays, most tech-savvy entrepreneurs rely on electronic signatures, also known as e-signature and online signature, to manage their transactions. E-signatures is as legally valid as handwritten signatures as long as it’s used according to regulations from recognized governing bodies (e.g., NIST-DDS, eIDAS, et cetera).
Using e-signatures make transactions convenient as you can approve contracts and complete forms as long as you have your internet-enabled device. Its convenience eliminates the need to meet in person or print to sign documents for Safe Online Transactions.
3. Be Mindful Of Phishing Emails
Phishing emails are messages that contain links or scripts that can capture your online credentials or lure you to provide them. Normally, top email providers have filters and algorithms that can detect and segregate them from regular emails. However, if you’re not using the service of those providers—say that you receive email through your company’s mail server—you might accidentally open a phishing email and become a victim.
Fortunately, you can verify any email’s authenticity in a couple of ways. Senders of this type of email usually scare recipients with warnings and instruct them to click on a link. Before you click on the link, hover your mouse cursor on the link first or press and hold if you’re using a touch screen device. After doing that, inspect the address or URL of the link. If you’re unfamiliar with the address and the email sounds fishy, then it’s best for you to ignore it and send it to your SPAM folder for Safe Online Transactions.
Another thing that you should note is that phishers write their emails badly. If you spot grammar mistakes or if the writer of the email seems to have a poor command of the language, be wary of it. Also, some phishing emails try to imitate actual messages from real companies. Try to do your research and compare real emails to spot the fake ones for Safe Online Transactions.
4. Only Transact With Reputable Sites
If you’re not familiar with a website, don’t transact with it. And if you want to risk doing business with an unknown e-commerce company, only proceed if it only uses known, reputable, and secure payment portals.
Don’t fall victim to trusting a site right away, especially if you’re treading the deep or dark web. Do your research and read reviews as well for Safe Online Transactions. Even if some sites are highly reputable, some of them are not invulnerable to data breaches and leaks.
5. Have Trustworthy Security Software To Protect You
Remember that any data you store on your computer or online will be always at risk of theft and hacking. Because of that, it’s always advisable to be cautious and well-equipped with trustworthy security software. Also, when browsing the internet in public, only connect to a secure and encrypted wireless network, and don’t even plan on doing transactions for Safe Online Transactions.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the things you need to do to ensure convenient and Safe Online Transactions on the web. Hopefully, you can put them to good use to avoid getting your personal information stolen or leaked.
