Consumers are being cautioned to be exceptionally careful of public WiFi hotspots and fake apps.
With shoppers out by the millions today, trying to find the best deal, Black Friday mobile security efforts will be critically important. Cybercriminals know that consumers will be downloading mobile commerce apps and will be tapping into public WiFi hotspots. This provides them with the perfect opportunity to launch their scams.
Anyone planning to use their smartphones should be aware of these types of fraud so they can protect themselves.
Anyone hoping not to have to deal with Black Friday mobile security problems will need to inform themselves. They will also need to take precautions. Fake m-commerce apps are expected to abound, as will fake Wi-Fi hotspots in busy locations such as malls. A growing number of security firms have been reminding consumers to take care before blindly trusting an application or internet connection.
Hackers love opportunities such as Black Friday mobile security breaches to grab private information.
Two of the companies that have tried to warn consumers of the types of mobile security threats that can occur on days like today are RiskIQ and Skycure.
Mobility strategist Brian Duckering of Skycure blogged that “Cyber criminals are increasing our risk of using mobile devices while shopping, whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday.” He added that “Going to physical stores and connecting to risky Wi-Fi networks, or shopping online both pose increasing risks we should all be aware of.”
RiskIQ, an enterprise security firm, said that there is a greater cyber security risk for smartphone users this year than there was in 2015. Due to the larger number of mobile device users, there are also more active cyber criminals. They target shoppers using their mobile phones to discover products or even make the purchases while using in-store WiFi.
This year, RiskIQ predicts that nearly a third (30 percent) of online Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending will be over mobile devices. At the same time, Skycure’s forecast is that mobile payments will be used three times as much this year as last year. These open the doors to more Black Friday mobile security issues and it’s up to consumers to protect themselves.
The creator of the social network is working hard to fight growing accusations of its role in the election results.
Amidst a rapidly rising body of criticism against Facebook social media marketing, Mark Zuckerberg insists the network isn’t to blame for Donald Trump’s victory. Critics claim that viral fake pro-Trump news stories on Facebook led to the Republican’s election win.
Zuckerberg has responded quite forcefully, saying that he feels the accusation is a “pretty crazy idea.”
Speaking onstage at a recent conference, Zuckerberg addressed the thought that Facebook social media marketing contributed to Donald Trump’s election. “Personally,” he said, “I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way—I think is a pretty crazy idea. Voters make decisions based on their lived experience.”
Zuckerberg also went on to ask “Why would you think there would be fake news on one side and not the other?”
That has not assuaged the critics insisting Facebook social media marketing doesn’t properly filter fake news.
Many claim that as the largest social media platform worldwide, viral hoax news posts shared there may have helped Trump to win. The reason, say many, is that Facebook either refuses or is not able to contain the spread of those fake news articles.
Moreover, BuzzFeed News conducted an investigation earlier in 2016 which examined the most right-wing extremely partisan publications published by Facebook pages. They determined that 38 percent of the news shared by those sources was misinformation. That said, when examining the same type of page on the left-wing side, misinformation occurred considerably less: 20 percent of the time.
Those figures may not sound too problematic, but BuzzFeed News also identified another trend with this form of Facebook social media marketing. The stories with the lowest accuracy were the ones BuzzFeed found to generate the largest number of shares and reactions (such as Likes). Inaccurate stories on Facebook pages greatly outperformed publications shared on Facebook pages from more mainstream political news sites. Over the last few months, a rash of hoax news sites were created in order to take advantage of this trend.
