How to Mitigate Online Shopping Risks
Online shopping is fun and convenient. You have access to goods from all over the world and all you have to do is make a few clicks and your items will be delivered right to your doorstep.
While online shopping has made life easier, it also opens doors to a number of risks. Websites such as Amazon and eBay are safe but what if a hacker is sitting between you and the Amazon server?
When you log into a website, the data that leaves your computer (username and password) travels through the internet, which is unencrypted and unsecured.
It is possible to hack an unencrypted network and read all the traffic that leaves your device. This is called a Man in the Middle Attack (MITM) where a hacker sits between a user’s computer and the webserver and sees all data being transmitted.
MITM attacks are mostly targeted towards financial transactions such as online shopping payments. When you enter your credit card details, there is a set of prying eyes reading the numbers as you type and send them.
To protect your data, you need to encrypt it.
Encryption for Online Shopping – How to Do It
Encryption makes things secure. When you encrypt your data, an MITM cyber criminal won’t be able to read it, even if they get hold of the data packets.
Imagine reading a school note written in “secret language”. Encryption works in pretty much the same way. You can get hold of the note but you still can’t read it.
The question is – how to encrypt your data. It sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo that’s done with the help of a technical doohickey.
Actually, encryption is very easy. It can be done with an app called VPN. Just download and install a VPN on your device and click on connect. That’ it! Now all your traffic will be encrypted and no hackers will be able to spy on it.
While VPNs are great, there is just a small problem with them – they make the connection slow. Sure, it might not be a problem if your 90 Mbps connection goes down to 80 Mbps. But if you’re using a slow internet (for example, if you’re using Amtrak Wi-Fi), a small dip can mean almost no internet.
VPN for Online Shopping – Not Just Encryption, but Also Special Deals
VPNs make online shopping more secure. But that’s not the only use of VPNs. There are many other things that you can do with a VPN for online shopping.
When you do international shopping, your location can make an impact on the prices you see. For example, if you’re in the US and are shopping for airplane tickets to Canada, you might find better deals if you book from Canada.
To check the prices from there, connect to a Canadian VPN server. Now look at the prices offered by the travel website. You’ll notice a change.
Apart from this, if you regularly check for the prices of some products, the website might surge the prices to create a sense of urgency. To make sure you get the right prices, clean your browser cookies and connect using a VPN.
This way, the shopping website will not be able to identify you and will recognize you as a first time visitor. If you don’t know how to clear browser cookies, you can just use another browser. For example, if you’ve been checking prices on Chrome, use Firefox this time.
The VPN Slowdown and How to Fix That for Online Shopping and More
As discussed earlier, VPNs make the connection slow. Well, most VPNs. Since rerouting and encrypting takes extra steps, the connection speed goes down a little.
To fix that issue, you can use a VPN that also bonds multiple networks to make your connection more stable and fast – something like Speedify.
Speedify is a bonding VPN that lets you combine multiple internet connections so you can get better speeds. You can combine several Wi-Fi networks or Wi-Fi with mobile data or any types of connections for that matter. If you have 2 or more slow connections, you can bond them together to get one connection with better bandwidth.
As Speedify also works as a VPN, it encrypts your data so you can be safe when making an online purchase. It hides your IP so your real location is hidden online and you can be anonymous.
Just download the Speedify app and connect to any of the 50+ locations in the world.
Get Speedify VPN to have a smoother and safer online shopping experience.
Download Speedify
Speedify is the only app that can combine multiple internet sources into one bonded super-connection for more stable and secure livestreaming, video calling, and web browsing.
