By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor
Webroot, a network security service company, announced the results of a survey that explores consumers' online shopping habits leading up to the holidays.
The survey was conducted on more than 2,660 individuals in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
The result shows dramatic increase in the online shopping plans from customers. According to the survey, 55 percent of respondents said they plan to buy at least half of their gifts online this holiday season, up from 38 percent of shoppers last year.
However, the survey also showed that consumers’ online habits, such as using search engines and public WiFi (News 
- Alert) for online gift-buying, may put them at risk. The survey found that 48 percent of online shoppers frequently, if not always, use search engines to find gifts online, compared to 52 percent in 2009.
While searching for gifts, 59 percent of users are inclined to trust the first few pages of the results compared to 38 percent in 2009.
Another important finding is the increase in the use of risky public WiFi for buying gifts. The survey found the trend has increased slightly, with 18 percent likely to use a public wireless access point to shop online for gifts, compared to 12 percent in 2009.
Webroot plans to make online shopping safe for people this holiday season.
Jeff Horne, threat research director at Webroot, said, “Through our survey, we learned that one in seven respondents has already become a victim of credit, debit, or PayPal (News - Alert) account fraud this year.”
In addition, Horne added, 57 percent received phishing e-mails from bogus sources claiming to be a legitimate company. This trend is on the high around Black Friday and Cyber Monday (News - Alert). “To end the year on a safe note, we urge all online shoppers to adopt some best practices before breaking out their holiday gift lists.”
Webroot advises online shoppers to directly visit the website instead of going through search engines. This could avoid possible cyber attacks as cybercriminals plant malicious links on Web sites that top the search results.
Another way to remain safe is to use different passwords for different online accounts. Users should also not allow Web browsers to store the password. Users could implement a password manager to remember the password, instead of storing them in an Office document.
Websites that are secured by Secure Socket Layer (SSL) are safer than Web sites that don’t. The SSL network security is indicated by the "https" in the address bar and a padlock icon in the browser Status Bar. Also, on sites where the retailer uses extended SSL validation, the address bar turns green on secured pages.
Users who have PayPal account should check the account frequently to detect any fraud. Webroot also advices customers to use credit card instead of using debit card so that they can stop transaction if any fraud occurs.
Spam e-mails lay the trap during holiday season. Users are likely to get e-mails that claim to be shipping confirmation or undeliverable package alerts that require them to open an attachment. Instead of opening these mails, customers must check the shipping status on the Web site where they have made purchase.
Webroot’s survey has found only 37 percent of respondents use unique passwords for each password-protected site where they shop. The survey also found more than quarter of respondents indicated their passwords are compromised. However, a great majority (72 percent) use complex passwords, and 62 percent do not save their passwords in their browser.
The survey results proved that users are not aware of the secure site indicators, with 52 percent of respondents saying they do not check for an https connection before making purchases and 50 percent not checking for the padlock in the browser's Status Bar before making purchases.
On WiFi front, 18 percent of respondents said they are likely to use a public wireless access point to shop online for gifts, while 23 percent feel completely safe shopping over a free public wireless connection.
Regionwise, UK holiday shoppers (64 percent) top in buying gifts online compared to their counterparts in the U.S. (51 percent) and Australia (34 percent). While UK respondents (77 percent) topped in using complex passwords, U.S. responded topped in using credit cards for online shopping, according to Webroot survey.
Another new research commissioned by Webroot finds companies are becoming more vigilant when it comes to their employees' use of social networking sites. The survey, conducted on U.S. and U.K companies, found that among 50 percent of the companies employees are not permitted to visit any social networks via a company computer or laptop.
