It has been part of our modern culture to shop during holiday season. It’s the time when the price of stuff we’ve been eyeing all year round plunges to better suit our budget, reviving retailers’ end of the year balance sheets all the whole. The season has incurred a new tradition for shoppers, spanning from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, and every remaining day of the year.  While Black Friday comes with its own set of concerns (where elbow and knee pads for midnight store openings), Cyber Monday has growing concerns around shopper security.

Hacks and identity theft spike during this time of year, as cyber criminals take advantage of consumers’ eagerness to begin their shopping season, and the online realm has extended our shopper’s paradise to one riddled with security loopholes.  It’s the sheer volume of activity on Cyber Monday that makes it so significant to consumers, retailers and cyber criminals alike, says John Burnham, VP of Corporate Marketing at Q1 Labs.  His company is all about protecting businesses and retailers during this heavy traffic day.

“What’s needed is for vendors to scale their security offering.  It’s really a big data problem, especially for large retailers because the volume of traffic is up so much that in order to find the needle in the pile of needles, you need to scale.”

But before you get all giddy about the onrush of sales, be sure to check out McAfee’s “12 Scams of Christmas.” It’s a list of a dozen online hazards that kicks off during holiday seasons.

“Cybercriminals rub their hands with glee when they think of the holidays,” said Gary Davis, director of consumer product marketing at McAfee. “Consumers are making travel plans, shopping for gifts and bargains, updating Facebook and connecting with friends. However, the vast majority have no security protection for their smartphones or tablets, despite using them heavily during the holiday season. Consumers need to stay one step ahead of this season’s cyber-scrooges, and make sure they have protection for all of their Internet-enabled devices. Otherwise, they could risk giving the bad guys the biggest gift of all — their own personal and financial information.”

Mobile shopping isn’t the most secure

It’s important to note that topping the hazard list is malware targeting mobile devices, especially smartphones and tablets running Android.  Google’s platform experienced a 76 percent increase in malware targeting for Q2 2011, including QR codes, which most shoppers use to purchase or get information about a product.  One should also be on the lookout for malicious mobile applications masking themselves as games and fun apps that are actually fashioned to rob you of your personal information, and underhandedly send out text messages.

While that may be the case for Android, iOS is not 100% safe either. The growing number of iOS devices entering the market is making Apple’s platform an attractive target as well. Malware hit 5,000 Mac devices in late 2010, and it’s growing by 10 percent month-over-month.

“Until recently, Mac users felt pretty insulated from online security threats, since most were targeted at PCs,” McAfee employee Gary Davis wrote in a blog post announcing the list. “But with the growing popularity of Apple products, for both business and personal use, cybercriminals have designed a new wave of malware directed squarely at Mac users.”

Moreover, InMobi reveals in their latest survey that some 60 million mobile consumers will use their handsets to shop, research purchases or seek retailer information for this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  Nearly 45 percent of mobile users will do comparison shopping on their mobile phones, which is up by 22 percent from 2010.  The rising popularity of mobile research and shopping will put a lot of pressure of traditional shopping, as consumers are likely to check their mobile phones first to see if there’s a better deal elsewhere.

To get a better view of the internet’s retail happenings this year, check out Akamai’s Retail Network Usage Index tool for Retail (Retail NUI). It monitors the world’s online retail habits round the clock, along with real-time insights into consumer trends.  This tool will keep you and your business up to date of the new developments that arise during Thanksgiving, more so during Cyber Monday when shopping peaks online.

“Akamai’s Net Retail Index last year illustrated that the trend of peak holiday shopping days is expanding far beyond CyberMonday.  The online holiday shopping season begins in October, and kicks into gear on Thanksgiving day, with shoppers researching Black Friday deals, on their couch, after dinner.  Green Monday on December 13th through to the last day of free shipping on December 17th will mark the heaviest traffic days for online retailers,” explains Lelah Manz, Chief Strategist for Commerce at Akamai.

“However, CyberMonday is still the first true test of an online retailer’s ability to support peak shopper traffic, and therefore is critical to keeping shoppers coming back throughout the holiday period.  If a retailer goes down on Black Friday or CyberMonday, that shopper is unlikely to come back.”

Social media shopping scams

Users also have to be wary of social media. Fake promotions on Facebook and other social media platforms are problems that never stop spreading. There are offerings that claim to give airline tickets and other gifts just to get users to reveals their bank account details, credit card numbers and other personal information. Scams also disguise themselves as delivery services centered around FedEx, UPS, banks and other financial institutions.  Also watch out for offerings that are too good to be true, especially those which ask for personal information.

“A common holiday phishing scam is a phony notice from UPS, saying you have a package and need to fill out an attached form to get it delivered. The form may ask for personal or financial details that will go straight into the hands of the cyberscammer…Banking phishing scams continue to be popular and the holiday season means consumers will be spending more money—and checking bank balances more often. From July to September of this year, McAfee Labs identified approximately 2,700 phishing URLs per day,” McAfee added.

Offices beware of Cyber Monday shoppers

Holiday shopping also poses threat to the corporate environment.  Employees spend half of their time shopping on Cyber Monday, using their work computers or personal devices on corporate networks, periling the network and its sensitive data, says Information System Audit and Control Association (ISACA) in its fourth annual “Shopping on the Job” survey.  The study examines the risks posed by employees’ online behavior to their respective enterprises.

Here’s a list of 12 tips from the San Francisco Chronicle on how to protect yourself on this convenient but indubitably dangerous Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

contributors: Kristina Farah