F-Secure: Consumers Will Lose $10 Million to Cyber Criminals During Holiday Season

December 19, 2011

According to a new report from F-Secure, over $10 million will be stolen online by cyber criminals this holiday season, because consumers are increasingly turning away from traditional retail to shop at online retailers. Online shopping has increased 10 percent since the same period a year ago, to right around $30.9 billion dollars - so far - according to comScore. For example, Cyber Monday raked in $1.25 billion, and Free Shipping Day saw around $1.72 billion in revenue.

But, according to security firm F-Secure, online crooks are alert during these periods of mass internet spending, and enjoy quietly stealing more than $10 million of a total $60 billion in expected sales. 

F-Secure recommends that those people who shop online should visit retailer sites directly, and avoid using search engines. This is mainly to avoid redirect scams, where criminals take a legitimate website link and redirect the user to a website that may be a replica of a real site.

It's something to think about. F-Secure reports that there are 35 reported cyber attacks every hour.

Source: VentureBeat

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lomdr: I'd say it's more Publishers saying otherwise and GS announcing they're cutting back on Xbone preorders that forced MS's hand. Thank god they didn't listen to CB06/20/2013 - 7:02am
lomdr: He'd like toi think that, but IIRC, Sony said that it was #PS4NoDRM, not the Press Release before E3, that made sony do that Take That at MS06/20/2013 - 7:01am
Conster: So apparently Cliff Bleszinski is saying it was Sony, not "the internet whining", that made Microsoft do a 180.06/20/2013 - 5:45am
ZippyDSMlee: Something I did by hand on my convertiable laptop, http://zippydsmlee.deviantart.com/art/Cotlop-zelda-unfinished-sketch-WIP-finish-373937163 forgot if I posted it befor.06/19/2013 - 7:44pm
Conster: Also, I guess The War Z changed its name so they can scam some more people?06/19/2013 - 7:44pm
Conster: AE: when even HuffPo makes the same joke, it's not something you want to take credit for. :P06/19/2013 - 7:43pm
Andrew Eisen: Hey look! The War Z changed its name to Infestation: Survivor Stories. http://infestationmmo.com/06/19/2013 - 7:23pm
Andrew Eisen: You're going to have a lot of company in prison, RedMage. Most of the internet has stolen MY joke. Bastards!06/19/2013 - 7:06pm
RedMage: The cover art thing points to an industry trend of only wanting to appeal to teen boys despite the talk of "broadening the appealz"06/19/2013 - 6:17pm
RedMage: I'd like to turn myself in for unintentional theft of a joke. Ignorance of the law is no excuse :o06/19/2013 - 6:17pm
Andrew Eisen: Remember the fight to get Last of Us's Ellie on the game cover? Check this out: http://cheezburger.com/758618624006/19/2013 - 6:12pm
Andrew Eisen: RedMage - Thief! You stole my joke! You're a horrible, loathesome person! Or you simply had the same idea and didn't read my earlier shout!06/19/2013 - 5:35pm
RedMage: Maybe they're going to rename it the Xbox 18006/19/2013 - 5:26pm
IanC: Bet EA are pissed.06/19/2013 - 5:17pm
Andrew Eisen: Ah, James is just a little quicker on the keyboard than I!06/19/2013 - 5:07pm
Craig R.: Too little, too late.06/19/2013 - 4:52pm
DorthLous: PWAHAHAHAH, the MS spinning sound woke me up :)06/19/2013 - 4:27pm
Andrew Eisen: Microsoft's new console shall now be known as the Xbox One-Eighty.06/19/2013 - 4:17pm
Andrew Eisen: I imagine we were typing our respective shouts at the same time.06/19/2013 - 4:14pm
MaskedPixelante: So Andrew... is there going to be a new poll now? I mean, the one about the XBO DRM is kinda no longer relevant.06/19/2013 - 4:13pm
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