Five Cyber Safety Tips for the Holidays

UA employees and students may get a break during the holidays, but cyber hackers are working overtime. OIT asks you to be cautious this holiday season with online shopping and delivery tracking. Below are five tips to keep you, your accounts and your precious gifts safe this holiday season.

Use credit cards rather than debit cards when shopping online. If your information is compromised, a credit card company may be quicker to refund your credit than a bank would be to issue a refund from your checking account.

When you’re shopping online, make sure you are shopping on a secure site. The URL should include “https.” The “s” stands for secure. It should also have a lock icon in the URL bar.

Check the from email address. If you receive a confirmation or tracking number via email, it should have the company’s name in the “from” email address. For example, if you receive an email from UPS alerting you that your package has shipped, it should come from ups.com.

Hover before you click. When you do get a confirmation or tracking email, hover over a link before clicking it. This will show you where a link is taking you before you go. This also works on your phone or tablet – just hold your thumb on the link and a bubble will appear with the URL.

Use a personal email for shopping online. Use your Gmail, Yahoo or other personal account for your online shopping. Do not open up your ua.edu or crimson.ua.edu account to unnecessary threats.

Stay smart and safe online this holiday season. The IT Service Desk will be closed Dec. 22, 2016, through Jan. 3, 2017. For more information, visit oit.ua.edu/security.