Office managers react to Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday marks the unofficial start of the online holiday shopping season, but not all business managers are excited for it. Over the next few weeks, consumers are sure to bring their shopping lists into the workplace - with a wave of potential online security threats following close behind.
According to the Sun-Sentinel, bosses around the country have smartened up to the web surfing habits of their employees. Citing research from Robert Half Technology, 23 percent of firms now watch for "excessive" visitation to online shopping sites, and another 60 percent have controls to block employee access to online retailers.
But for companies that do allow online shopping in the office, it may be wise to educate employees about the risk of identity theft and other online scams.
Consumer protection advocates from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse encourage online shoppers to stay safe by reading each merchant's privacy policy, signing up for credit card alerts and only giving out information that is required to process an order. PRC also advises consumers to resist the urge to recycle their passwords across several sites. Using a password manager to generate and store stronger passwords for each unique account can limit damages if a website breach were to occur.
