Online shopping is so common today that people are just fully enjoying the process without any concern. However, are you aware that your credit card number and personal data may be at risk?
You may want to build up the habit of checking if the online store you are visiting is secure by looking at the address field: make sure the padlock icon is locked, and the connection is secure. Otherwise, avoid sending any sensitive information, including your credit card numbers, through this website.
If you check carefully you may notice that the URL of secure site and non-secure sites are different: secure sites start with https://, while non-secure sites start with http://. Secure sites implemented the SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Simply put, SSL is a technology to encrypt the data transferred between your device and the website you are browsing, making it hard for bad guys to gain access to your sensitive information.
In fact, Google has already added this checking into the Chrome browser. An error message would be display when you visit a non-secure site:
Remember, it is always a good idea to check the security of the site you are visiting to protect yourself.