Amazon Prime Day (June 21-22), customers are looking to bag bargains, and cybercriminals are prepared to exploit the unobservant shopper. Keith Hollender, Global Cybersecurity Practice Lead at MorganFranklin Cyber shares his insights on the looming threats of Amazon Prime day and how shoppers can protect themselves from adversaries looking to steal their personal information.
Keith Hollender, Global Cybersecurity Practice Lead at MorganFranklin Consulting
“Amazon Prime Day is a great day for online shoppers and businesses, but we should also take the opportunity to raise awareness on the evolving threat landscape when it comes to the malicious use of credentials for online sales. For the consumers, their login credentials provide purchasing access, which elevates the importance of strong authentication. In addition to not reusing passwords on multiple sites, consumers should always enable Multi-factor authentication (MFA). This provides an extra layer of security by requiring a virtual or hardware device and generate a response to an authentication challenge (i.e., code generation, Fingerprint or face scan on smart device, text or phone call). This helps validate the consumer’s identity while logging into their account.
Another looming threat is malicious Newly Registered Domains (NRDs) which are primarily used to host data harvesting malware, phishing, and obtain personal identifiable information by approaching victims via spam campaigns. The recent spike is due to cybercriminals looking to exploit the fear and uncertainty caused by the unstable social and economic situation created by COVID-19, in addition to the increased online dependency for people around the world. Consumers should always validate the URL before clicking a link and leverage tools that provide browser protection from malicious sites.”
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