Last-minute Shoppers Face Bigger Cyber Risk

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Consumers who wait until the last moment for holiday shopping face a greater cyber risk, according to a Kaspersky survey.

One reason is that 40 per cent of US consumers doing most of their shopping after Dec. 16 are willing to shop on sketchy-looking sites if there’s an enticing offer compared to just 29 per cent who shop earlier, according to a press release on the survey findings.

Kaspersky research data shows that banking Trojan attacks, which are widely used by cybercriminals to target ecommerce payment data, have already nearly doubled in 2022, compared to last year.

Kaspersky surveyed 2,000 American adults between October 20 and 24 about their holiday shopping and online security habits.

Additional findings include:

• Last-minute shoppers were less likely to say they are careful about the information they share online (44 per cent) than early shoppers (those who are mostly done by 12/15) (51 per cent).
• Only 46 per cent of last-minute shoppers avoid links in messages from people they do not know, vs. 56 per cent of early shoppers.
• 28 per cent of last-minute shoppers follow the recommended advice of using a different password for each online store account, compared to 33 per cent of early shoppers.
• 39 per cent of early shoppers check for typos in emails with special offers, compared to only 32 per cent of last-minute shoppers.

“No one loves the holiday shopping season more than cybercriminals, given the elevated level of online transactions, and the fact that deal seekers often let their guard down and make themselves into vulnerable targets,” Kurt Baumgartner, principal security researcher, Kaspersky, said in the release. “While much attention is typically given to the Black Friday-Cyber Monday period, the threat of falling victim to scams is always there, especially for rushed shoppers. We urge people to take basic security considerations and to avoid waiting until the last minute, when the time crunch can get them into trouble.”