As consumers proceed full force into the online shopping season, it’s important to remember that good-hearted, upstanding citizens won’t be the only ones filling their shopping cart. As cybercriminals prepare to trade massive scores of PII (personally identifiable information) for cash in the “Underground Economy”, it’s important you recognize the risks and take steps necessary to protect your identity.

Symantec’s report on cybercrime reveals the volume and lucrativeness of identity theft.

• Credit cards, the hottest commodity, account for nearly 33% of all illegal transactions and produce approximately $5.3 billion in revenue each year. Credit card numbers fetch between $0.10 to $25 per card, so compromising as many accounts as possible motivates thieves in this category.
• Stolen financial accounts, the next most lucrative target, produce approximately $1.7 billion in revenue (20% of the total volume). Historically, stolen bank accounts have carried an average balance of $40,000 and sold for $10 and $1,000 each.

Crafty, sneaky, and increasingly sophisticated hacker techniques make it difficult to detect schemes, but (re)educating yourself on the risks and acting on protective measures will help prevent identity theft from ruining your holiday season.

#1 Check Statements Daily and Monitor Credit – Review transactions flowing thru your bank and credit card accounts daily. Detecting and reporting fraud or identify theft fast will “stop the bleeding” and increase the chances for a complete financial recovery. Federal law provides consumers one free copy of their credit report (from each of the reporting bureaus) every year. Toward the end of the middle or end of the holiday shopping season may be a strategic time to exercise your right. Contact Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax annually.

#2 Implement Password Confidentiality and Strength – Stolen passwords contribute a great deal to identity theft and security breaches taking place online. Password security seems so simple and obvious, but the recent incident with Hotmail shows that consumers are not following basic guidelines for safety and much work and education remains to be done. So, here are the top password guidelines (AGAIN!)

• Don’t share your password with anyone.
• Change passwords often.
• Set a different, strong password for every website you visit. For example, Twitter should not have the same PW as your bank account or email, etc.
• Strong passwords include 8 characters and a mix of symbols, numbers and letters.
• Finally, a service like One Password can help make the task of implementing good password safety more manageable.

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Tis the season for shopping, travel, food, and family. Unlike holiday seasons of past, planning and performing these activities will involve the web. Booking travel online. Searching for great buys, and purchasing gifts for your family, friends, and clients. Discovering the best recipes and party ideas to ensure your holiday gathering is memorable. When you sit back to think about it, eCommerce is infiltrating our shopping lives, and for good reason.

• eCommerce websites never close.
• You can easily compare prices from multiple sellers.
• No lines, crowded parking lots, or germs (H1N1).

All these benefits mean more and more people (of all ages and economic conditions) will be shopping online during the holidays in 2009 – enough to generate an estimated $156 Billion in sales. (Online shopping represents 36% of sales expected from all channels this winter according to the National Retail Federation.)

That’s music to the ears of cyberthieves. Like retailers, hackers are going into their busy season. The influx of shoppers using eCommerce websites over the next several weeks means that there are more cyber crime victims upon whom to prey.

Even if cybercriminals can only maintain conversion rates for malware (Trojans, rootkits, spyware, zero-day exploits, keyloggers, and viruses) and phishing attempts (spam), the voluminous spike in traffic means they will increase their earnings. Cyber thieves know that unpredictable traffic patterns and spikes can make it difficult to detect a security breach meaning hacks carried out during the holidays may go overlooked for a longer period of time.

So that’s that backdrop in front of which a secure web hosting provider views holiday 2009, and we’re up for the challenge.

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