Tag: Black Friday shopping

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.

According to the results of a recent study, more people mobile shopped over the holiday weekend than ever.

According to a recent study from the National Retail Federation, there were more people who used m-commerce over the Thanksgiving and Black Friday long weekend than has been the case in any previous year.

The online survey showed that online retail saw a considerable online shopping spike, particularly over mobile.

The research took into consideration the shopping habits of over 151 million people who said that they had shopped in stores, online or over m-commerce over that weekend launching the holiday shopping season. Many retailers took care to offer the same deals over their websites that they had to offer in store, allowing consumers to be able to make the purchases they wanted without having to wait in line in the actual shops. The survey itself was conducted on behalf of the federation by Prosper Insight & Analytics. It indicated that approximately 102 million people had said they shopped in store on the Thanksgiving weekend.

That said, even more – 103 million people – said they shopped online and over m-commerce channels.

The survey also showed that even by the close of the weekend, there were still 121 million people who had intended to shop online and over mobile commerce on Cyber Monday. While this is a significant number, it should be pointed out that it is actually a reduction when compared to the 126.9 million people that had intended to shop on Cyber Monday after having done so over the Thanksgiving and Black Friday long weekend.

According to figures reported by the Wall Street Journal, this year, consumers spent an estimated $4.45 billion over online and mobile commerce channels on Thursday and Friday, alone. Black Friday sales increased by 14 percent when compared to the figures from 2014, according to the data shared by Adobe Systems, Inc. That online and m-commerce figure is based on purchases made in about 4,500 locations across the United States. Adobe’s estimates were also that over half of online shopping occurred over smartphones, further underscoring the importance of mobile devices for retail shopping.