Holidays are already nearing. Many of us are preparing ourselves to make purchases avoiding the crowd out there at streets and malls. This is where online shopping plays its important role in saving us from such hectic situations. Though online shopping has made lives that easier it is still a weakness with the information that we make use while purchasing our products.

Holiday seasons are the considered the most profitable period for online retailers at the same time, cyber criminals make use of this opportunity to profit themselves. A recent analysis by Norton safe web has found that shopping sites are the one amongst ten most frequently utilized websites. There is another concern about the fake e-commerce websites, which may look legal but are completely designed to hack the information of your credit card.

If you are the one who has planned to make online shopping this year, then you should be capable enough to identify a genuine vendor. This could be the only best way to protect you from being theft. On the other hand, you need to be ahead-of-the-curve about the security features available and also know how they work.

Why is it Important to Protect Yourself?

Am not sure whether you are already benefited from security features developed to protect passwords, credit card information and usernames. Websites that are developed by financial institutions, insurance companies, and government agencies contain enough security features to help protect your private information from cyber theft.

Many a time most of us fail to notice all such security status of online vendors. This is because we are highly used to online purchases and barely bother about such security issues. This makes cyber attackers more comfortable than before. A report has stated that online scams on social media have increased by 70%.

As online theft or threats are not just limited to certain groups rather anyone could be a victim. That is why it is really important to know what to be guaranteed for a safe online shopping.

Security Features that everyone should be aware of:

Unless you know what to look for, you won't be able to find or identify security features of online retailers. To be very clear, you should look out for an SSL certificate which you can verify in a couple of ways. The foremost and the simplest thing is to look out for the 'S' in the 'HTTP:" at the URL of your vendor.

Also, check out for additional security signals such as lock or green colour in the address bar.

Before you could proceed with payment process (or) entering any personal information, check out whether the website is secure enough to hold your information. One simplest step is checking the HTTP. The HTTP should turn to be HTTPS which indicates the session to be secure. And that the site is encrypting your personal information. This is called Secure Socket Layer (SSL). To make it simple for your understanding, the SSL denotes that your information is secured from hackers.

NOTE: There are cheap SSL Certificates that vendors may use. In such case, it is preferred to go with sites that are most popular and trusted by many.

Let me explain you some of the other ways;

Ways to Secure:

There are circumstances in which 100% security cannot be assured. That is where the following tips could help you to stay protected as you spread the holiday cheer:

• The foremost thing is, make use of the latest internet browser to avoid security gaps where malware can peep in.
• Recommended to use VPN service when necessary in the browse. This encrypts data.
• As mentioned earlier make sure that all your transactions and information exchange are made under a secure site.
• You can also scan the entire site. Norton Secured Seal is the widely recognized trust mark to scan websites.
• Shopping Guarantees are the other important trust marks. Norton also ensures on shopping guarantees about the vendors as they are safe from identity theft.
• Make use of comprehensive internet security solution like the Norton security and ensure that it is up to date.
• Be aware of the identity theft as you may not know about a criminal and whether he has gotten a hold of your financial information. You need to be proactive by closely monitoring all such activities.
• Try to use updated passwords and make them strong enough that it doesn't break.
• You need to update your passwords every now and then to avoid security breaks. This is especially insisted for accounts that contain personal information.
• We are very much good at hitting the deal coupons or ads that appear on the screen. Always try to avoid clicking on links of such deals or emails that you are not familiar with.

Finally, in case if you are still not clear or you find it suspicious to deal with e-commerce websites, you could make use of Norton safe web. This could help you identify risky websites and stay away from them. If you are not able to find any of the security solutions on the websites you reach out, it is always good and preferred to make use of any other mode of purchase or shopping.

You can even act wisely by cross-checking with Better Business Bureau (BBB) to spot out poorly managed e-commerce websites. Hope this information would highly help you to spot websites that lack security. And probably makes your seasonal shopping experience more comfortable than ever. It is good to enjoy your holiday shopping, but being secure enough is really more important than that. So have a safe and secure holiday shopping experience with these tips.