Fortinet Issues Cyber Safety Tips for Diwali Festive Online Shopping Season

Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cyber security solutions, today reminded online shoppers and bargain hunters to keep their mobile devices secure and stay vigilant against cybercriminals, before participating in Alibaba’s “11/11” Singles’ Day − the world’s largest online shopping festival and the ongoing Diwali festive sale.Alibaba’s upcoming annual Singles’ Day sale, which will take place on 11 November 2018, is expected to spark off numerous online retail carnivals across the Asia Pacific region. In 2017, the “11/11” carnival rewrote the record books when it generated US$25.3 billion sales in one day. 

Due to the high mobile phone penetration, consumers across APAC are increasingly relying on their smart mobile devices and tablets to conduct online transactions from e-banking and e-payments to e-hailing and a myriad of online mobile shopping apps. According to Mastercard’s Mobile Shopping Survey 2017, mobile shopping is registering higher growth in APAC’s emerging markets, outpacing their more developed counterparts. Consumers in the Philippines (53.5 percent) and Malaysia (55.6 percent) topped the region with the highest year-on-year growth; while consumers in India (75.8 percent) was the region’s top mobile shoppers, having made at least one purchase through their mobile phones in the three months preceding the survey. China’s mobile shoppers remain a close second at 71.4 percent, followed by Thailand at 65 percent.