The holidays are upon us and the shopping season is kicking into high gear. This year, an estimated 270 million consumers will shop online and, for the first time, more than half of them will use mobile devices to check off their holiday shopping lists.

With consumers searching for holiday discounts through display ads, social media and email, Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Group predict that both malvertising and email spam will be significant vectors for cyber crime this season - especially for mobile shoppers. This is worrisome for the simple reason that most mobile devices do not posses the ability to block many of these threats, leading to increased vulnerabilities as attackers seek profit gain during the busiest time for online commerce.

Through their research, Talos found that Android users are particularly vulnerable. Of the all Apple and Android OS blocks observed on the Cisco's Cloud Web Security (CWS) platform, the Talos team found that nearly 95% were Android-related. At the heart of the problem, many users are running significantly older versions of the Android OS, which lack the security updates for today's most persistent threats. This holiday season, we advise that our mobile shoppers exercise additional caution.

Keep reading for more on our findings and recommendations.