Online shopping is on the rise, with more and more consumers preferring to buy items from the comfort of their own homes because the process is easy, convenient, and often more affordable than buying from brick-and-mortar stores.
However, as online shopping becomes more popular, so do cybercrime activities aimed at compromising eCommerce stores. By being proactive and taking steps to protect your business, you can keep your customers' data safe and avoid the devastating repercussions of the following cyberattacks.
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS)
In this attack, cybercriminals flood a website with traffic, overloading it and making it unusable. If your eCommerce business suffers from a DDoS attack, your website would be inaccessible, resulting in frustrated customers and lost sales.
You can prevent DDoS attacks by using a reputable hosting provider, implementing a content delivery network, and deploying firewalls and intrusion detection systems to monitor and block suspicious traffic.
Phishing attacks
Phishing attacks are a form of social engineering that involve cybercriminals sending fraudulent emails, text messages, or phone calls to trick users into providing their personal information, such as login credentials or credit card numbers. Phishing can lead to costly breaches and reputational damage, both of which can close down your eCommerce store.
To protect your organization against phishing, train your employees to spot and report suspicious messages and/or attachments. You should also implement anti-phishing software and email filters to catch spam messages, and enable multifactor authentication to prevent unauthorized logins.
Malware
Malware is short for malicious software, which refers to any code designed to damage or disrupt a computer system or network by stealing data or compromising its security settings. Malware is dangerous because it can infect your website, servers, or devices, and it is often used by cybercriminals to steal sensitive information, damage or destroy data, or take control of systems.
To protect against malware, install anti-malware and antivirus software on all of your devices. Also, you must regularly update all software and operating systems so they always have the latest bug fixes and patches. Educate your employees to scan all files and downloads for malware as well, and perform regular backups of all essential data to prevent data loss in case of malware infection.
SQL injection (SQLI)
SQL injection exploits vulnerabilities in a web application's input fields to inject malicious SQL (Structured Query Language) statements. If successful, the attacker can access, modify, or delete sensitive data. They can even take over the server.
SQL injection attacks are preventable by following secure coding practices, such as validating and sanitizing input data and using parameterized queries or prepared statements to avoid executing raw SQL code. Using firewalls can also help detect SQL injection attacks.
Cross-site scripting (XSS)
In an XSS attack, the perpetrator injects malicious code into a website. This code is then executed by a user's browser when they visit the compromised page, allowing the attacker to steal the visitor’s sensitive data, such as payment information or login credentials.
XSS attacks can be prevented by following secure coding practices, such as properly validating user input and encoding output data to prevent malicious code from being executed. You should also perform server-side filtering of all content before it is displayed on your websites.
Insider threats
This threat refers to entities such as employees or contractors who may compromise the security of the business, whether intentionally or not. For instance, an employee becomes an insider threat if they gain access to certain areas or resources within the company’s network environment that should not be accessible to them.
Protect against insider threats by implementing strict access controls and having strong identity management protocols. Also, perform regular monitoring operations, such as user activity logging, auditing, and penetration testing simulations aimed at uncovering weaknesses in the security architecture.
It’s clear that eCommerce stores are under constant threat from cybercriminals who are looking to steal sensitive data or disrupt operations. Fortunately, by partnering with a reliable tech expert like Cutting Edge, you can implement comprehensive solutions and strategies that will enable you to protect your business from the ever-growing threat of cybercrime. Contact us today to learn more.
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