Staying safe online during the holidays

By Matthew Lysiak | Special to amNewYork

More Americans than ever are expected to congest the information superhighway this holiday in search of that elusive perfect gift, but those looking to play cyber-Santa better may soon discover that even the Web has a Grinch.

That's because online consumers shouldn't expect good will from spammers and viruses whose plan is to decorate computer screens with an unprecedented assault of potentially harmful spam. Of particular concern is phishing, an attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a legitimate message from a trustworthy site. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets.

"We typically see an increase in phishing activity before a regular two-day weekend, but the volume of phishing sites and corresponding e-mail in just this past 24 hours (after Black Friday) is quite astounding," said Dean Drako, president and chief executive of Barracuda Networks, an industry leader in e-mail and Web security. "We expect this blitz to continue."

Drako reported a more than 10-times surge in phishing sites created and three times the number of phishing e-mails sent out since the Friday after Thanksgiving. The increase means that scammers and their criminal networks are working feverishly to cash in on the holiday blitz -- at your expense.

But careful shoppers face little risk, so long as they follow the usual virus-protection advice -- meaning don't click on anything you don't recognize, according to Matt Sergeant, an anti-spam technologist at MessageLabs, a market leader in Web security.

"Only shop at stores you know about or have previous knowledge of, or stores that have a well known reputation," Sergeant said. "Don't buy anything from emails you receive, unless they are offers from companies you have a previous relationship with."

And one more thing: Just don't ever, ever, open that Christmas greeting card attachment from an unexpected friend no matter how jolly it may appear.

"Don't open greeting cards from people you don't expect them from," said Sergeant. "The volume of these is likely to remain about the same over the holiday season, but expect them to take on a more Christmas-y feel."