E-commerce is bigger than ever before. With our shifting economic world, the often more affordable nature of online shopping has been extremely attractive to customers (especially as inflation continues to rise). For this reason, e-commerce websites have become prime targets for malicious attackers with bad intentions. The first step in protecting yourself is knowing what types of attacks and security threats to watch out for. These are just ten of the most extremely common e-commerce security threats that businesses should be aware of:
1. Phishing
Phishing occurs when attackers pose as the owners of an e-commerce site and send out infected links to their customers via messages and email. Fake copies of a website’s pages or other seemingly legitimate links are used to execute this type of attack. Links to false PayPal pages and other payment apps are frequently used when attackers are executing this type of strategy.
2. Financial Frauds
Fraud has been the most common form of attack that’s occurred since commerce moved online. Credit card fraud, fake returns, and refund fraud are all possible during these types of malicious attacks. Various kinds of financial fraud can be undertaken outside of these more common types, so you must stay vigilant to avoid them. Hiring an outside cybersecurity consulting firm is one of the best ways to guarantee your e-commerce site remains secure.
3. Malware
Malware is designed to infiltrate and install viruses, spyware, ransomware, and other trojan-style glitches into a computer’s system. When this malware is hosted unknowingly on your website, there are many consequences. Among these, your customers and admins might also find themselves infected with malware. Malware programs can swipe sensitive data on the infected sites as well, causing legally and financially frustrating problems.Â
4. Spamming
If your website has a blog, contact form, or other space where visitors can post, you are potentially susceptible to spamming attacks. This attack aims to spam your website with infected links that will infiltrate anyone unfortunate enough to click on these misleading links. However, the attack typically completes when the person clicking on the link ends up on the website they are linked to.
5. Brute Force
Brute force attacks are used to infiltrate your admin panels by cracking passwords. Fraudulent programs that are connected to your websites will try out thousands upon thousands of password combinations and tricks to attempt a brute force attack. To avoid this, generating passwords that will be nearly impossible to guess, or even using password generation software, becomes crucial.
6. e-Skimming
E-skimming is a practice that infects a website’s checkout pages with malicious software. These are some of the most damaging attacks an e-commerce site can be hit by, as the goal of the attacker is to steal your clients’ personal and payment details. Because of how devastating this is, it can lead to lawsuits, and severely damage the reputation of your business in a hard-to-reverse manner.
7. MITM
MITM (or man-in-the-middle) attacks happen when attackers are listening in on conversations or other communication happening between your e-commerce website’s server, and customers visiting or using that site. When a user is connected to an insecure, vulnerable Wi-Fi network, this attack can occur. Providing backup on your e-commerce website to prevent this type of covert listening is crucial.
8. Exploitation of Known Vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities can easily pop up within your e-commerce store’s website if you do not stay vigilant. Attackers seek these vulnerabilities out and plan their infiltration of your websites around them. SQL injection, cross-site scripting (also known as an XSS attack), and other attacks are used via this method.
9. Bots
Specially crafted bots are often created by cyberattackers to scrape website information that can be used to harm your business and its customers. Everything from inventory, to sensitive financial and personal information, can be gained using these bots. Competing businesses have even been known to use bots to gain access to financial data that can help them overtake your company’s success.
10. DoS & DDoS Attacks
E-commerce websites have frequently incurred losses when they experience disruptions in their company website. DDoS and DoS attacks cause sales to plummet as companies struggle to gain back safe, secure access to their site’s functionality. These attacks cause a deluge of requests from (often) untraceable Ip addresses, which make it crash, keeping your store visitors from being able to patron your business.
Protect Yourself and Your Customers
Protecting your customers, your website, and your company’s employees are your responsibility as a business. Without the ability to understand how to prevent these attacks, however, you’ll have a difficult time avoiding damage to your profits and your business’s reputation. For this reason, looking for outside help is always highly recommended.
