{"id":21806,"date":"2020-11-18T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=21806"},"modified":"2020-11-18T11:39:55","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T11:39:55","slug":"black-friday-and-covid-19-is-a-concerning-combination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/black-friday-and-covid-19-is-a-concerning-combination\/21806\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-Friday and Covid-19 is a concerning combination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like the ever-marching seasons, it\u2019s quickly approaching that time of year where we all get a little sweaty about what to buy for our loved ones.\u00a0 Should I get them that box set that everybody is talking about, or should I play it safe with socks?\u00a0 Whatever we choose, many of us are looking for a bargain.\u00a0 That\u2019s because, thanks to Covid-19, many of us are having to tighten our financial belts as redundancies, lay-offs and store closures hit hard.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s where issues begin to arise.\u00a0 As the belts begin to tighten, so do our desires to grab that bargain \u2013 after all, we still want to treat the ones we love, right, especially after the year we\u2019ve all had?\u00a0 Indeed, many of us intend to do more shopping online this year than ever before, with around 60% of those asked in a <a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2020\/11\/13100928\/black-friday-final-eng.pdf\">recent survey<\/a> by Kaspersky saying they intend to do most or all of their Christmas shopping online this year and around 34% will leave their shopping right up until the last minute, in the hopes of securing a bigger discount.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-21807\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2020\/11\/17132204\/discount-danger-image-1024x664.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"664\"><\/p>\n<p>However, hidden rummaging through the bargain bin might leave you with a nasty taste in your mouth, as some sites may hide nasties such as malware or phishing links \u2013 indeed, only 29% of those surveyed were aware of the potential security risks of unknown brands offering large online discounts.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-21808\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/86\/2020\/11\/17132208\/tips-image-1024x421.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"421\"><\/p>\n<p>So, if that\u2019s the case \u2013 how can you stay safe (and grab that elusive bargain!) whilst shopping online this Black Friday and holiday season?\u00a0 There are four simple steps you can take to minimise your shopping worries:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Only shop with legitimate online stores.\u00a0 This also includes smaller online stores!\u00a0 If you\u2019re not sure about a store, check review sites, social media or give them a call!<\/li>\n<li>Verify any discounts you receive.<\/li>\n<li>Complete purchases through secure payment sites (check for the padlock!) using methods that allow you some peace of mind like a credit card.<\/li>\n<li>Secure your online account passwords with the use of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/password-manager?redef=1&amp;THRU&amp;reseller=gb_pw-blog_acq_ona_smm__onl_b2c_som_link_smteam______\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">password manager<\/a> and keep your devices up to date with security software updates.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black Friday is upon us \u2013 but the added complication of Covid is causing some shoppers to take unnecessary risks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":18354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2026],"tags":[200,553,709,529],"class_list":{"0":"post-21806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-threats","9":"tag-black-friday","10":"tag-news-2","11":"tag-research","12":"tag-threats"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/black-friday-and-covid-19-is-a-concerning-combination\/21806\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/black-friday-and-covid-19-is-a-concerning-combination\/23382\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/black-friday-and-covid-19-is-a-concerning-combination\/25740\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/tag\/black-friday\/","name":"black friday"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21816,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21806\/revisions\/21816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}