Tips for online holiday shoppers to safeguard against banker trojans

Banker trojans, whose primary goal is financial gain, work in various ways, from capturing keystrokes to redirecting users to fake banking sites. Another threat that consumers face during the holiday season is phishing, where they are sent emails that appear to come from a banking institution in an effort to gain access to their passwords. In addition, this malicious tactic is increasingly being used in online gaming and instant messaging applications.

To educate and protect consumers from these dangerous risks, Panda Security’s online holiday shopping guide offers the following tips:

1. Make sure there are no active viruses on your PC before shopping or banking online

2. Ignore spam messages or those that claim to come from financial entities requesting confidential data

3. Investigate an online seller’s reputation before purchasing anything from them

4. Keep the operating system and applications on your computer up-to-date

5. Do not run files or click on links from suspicious sources

6. Never pay for anything online unless you completely trust the seller

7. Do not send confidential data over email, instant messaging, chat or similar channels