Some these security risks include the following:

FINANCIAL DATA THEFT/FRAUD: Many attackers target personal information such as names, addresses and credit card numbers. This allows them to make purchases online using someone else’s payment information. One method being used is called pharming or using fraudulent websites to manipulate people into giving out their credentials.

Another more effective and insidious method is deliberately targeting specific users and manipulating them into giving their personal information (also known as spear phishing). Other exploits used to steal financial information include, but are not limited to: SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, Path Traversal, Session Hijacking, and Drive-by Downloading

DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE (DDoS) ATTACKS: A Denial of Service attack’s aim is to take down e-commerce sites by flooding them with requests. This kind of attack overloads the e-commerce site to the point where it can’t handle anymore requests, making the service slow down or even go offline.

Slow service for an e-commerce site means loss of potential revenue and massive impact to brand reputation.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE ATTACK: Man in the Middle attacks do exactly what they say — the attacker eavesdropping or intercepting the user’s (in this case, the online shopper’s) connection with the website. Even with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS) in place, there are still ways attackers can trick the browser to gain access to the plain text data.

EFFECTS OF A SECURITY BREACH FOR AN E-COMMERCE SITE

If such an attacker manages to compromise an e-commerce site, the following can happen:

LOSS OF REVENUE: The first, most obvious effect of a security breach is loss of income. Small businesses shell out an average of $38,000 to recover from a single data breach in direct expenses alone.

On top of that, a company that experiences a security breach can also be held accountable for not following

data protection policies, leading to hefty fines that can lead to a business’s insolvency.

DAMAGE TO BRAND REPUTATION: Apart from the direct loss of sales due to site unavailability (due to a DDoS attack, for example), losses of sales can also be due to customers walking (or in this case, browsing) away from the shop in favour of other shops without such security breaches. Losing customers’ and stakeholders’ trust is the most harmful impact of a security breach.

People will not do business with a breached company, plain and simple.

Even if the company is eventually able to recover the financial losses, the impact on the company’s reputation would be a scar that would take a significant amount of time to fade. That is, if it even fades at all.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT/DAMAGE: Another impact of a security breach is theft and damage to intellectual property like trade secrets, blueprints, and anything else that gives a company their competitive advantage. This can mean missing out on expanding the business since the company can no longer fully implement new and innovative ideas brewing in the pipeline.

HOW TO PROTECT E-COMMERCE SITES

The good news is there are ways e-commerce shop owners can protect their websites, their customers, and their data:

1. Research on the e-commerce platform and payment gateway the e-commerce business runs on to ensure it complies with information security standards. Make sure the platform is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). PCI DSS is an information security standard defined to control how credit and debit card information is handled. To determine if the e-commerce platform is compliant, refer to Visa and Mastercard’s compliant service provider lists.
2. If you plan to implement your own platform using open-source platforms like Magento, then the responsibility is on the shop owner to implement security measures. Ensure that your shop is PCI-compliant and other basic security measures are in place.
3. Make sure the entire site (not just the payment area) uses HTTPS and do keep the SSL certificate updated. The certificate creates a secure connection between the user and the server. Otherwise, the data is easily accessible and readable by anyone. Contact your hosting provider if the shop is not hosted via HTTPS.
4. Only store customer data that is needed and make regular backups of them.
5. Conduct a vulnerability scan on the online shop. Even with security measures in place, it is possible that the site is still vulnerable from threats that are not obvious to the end user. This is where a web scannercomes in. Web scanner scans web applications for known vulnerabilities by spidering through links and ignoring pages linked outside the target domain.

SECURITY IS NUMBER ONE FROM DAY ONE

Hackers and cybercriminals only get smarter and more sophisticated with each passing year. Therefore, the onus is on business owners to make security a priority.

While a cybersecurity endeavour takes a lot of time and resources, the upfront cost is still lower than the potential losses and is a worthwhile investment for all e-commerce setups.

Background on writer: Samantha Cruz is a Cyber Operations Researcher at Horangi. She specializes in cyber research and security tool development. Before joining Horangi, she has worked for Trend Micro as a security analyst and engineer.

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In some extend, some of the “victims” did not even know that their information technology (IT) system have been breached by malicious code and virus, according to Application Intelligence Report (AIR) complied by US-based computering firm, A10 Network.

Almost one in two companies hacked on average in 2017

On the all-telling reports, the US-based A10 Network surveyed over 2000 businesses and IT leaders globally on the knowledge and attitudes toward cyber-security. The survey was conducted between two targeted groups, the IT decision makers and employees of the corporations.

The findings were then rather alarming as nearly half or 44% of the companies surveyed, indicated that they have either been a victim of a DDoS attack or do not know if they have been attacked.

To be specifically, 33% of the companies polled recognized that their IT system had been breached at least once over the past 12 months, while 11% polled were still left in dark of whether at least a cyber-attack had occurred to its IT infrastructure over the past one year.

Ignorance is not bliss

On further surveys with the companies’ employees revealed nonchalant attitudes toward a DDoS attack or simply the lack of awareness in this area. As such, the AIR recorded 55% of the participating employees claimed little or no knowledge of what a DDoS attack is.

Similarly, 11% of the participants were left in the dark and unsure if they have been attack or not by DDoS over the past year. Therefore in addressing to this knowledge gap, over 90% of the IT decision makers of the corporations believed cyber-security education were needed to create the awareness among employees.

Yet to rub salt to employees’ ignorance of DDoS, almost a quarter or 23% of the IT decision makers expected the education to do little or no improvement in employees’ attitude toward corporate cyber-security best practices over the next 12 months, as opposed to 77% whom believe optimistically that improvement is nigh.

Gloom and doom for 2018

The IT decision makers’ pessimism did not stop there, as over half of the personnel polled or 60% expected the DDoS attacks to intensify in 2018. This was due to the hackers using more sophisticated approaches, where the sizes and the frequency of DDoS attacks are estimated to increase as well.

As such, only around 36% of IT decision makers are only slightly optimistic about their ability to stop threats and protect their companies. However, they cited the need for ongoing support and corporate commitment to cyber-security policy and enforcement to fend off rising attacks.

Changed attitudes with right infrastructure forms the best defense

After the publication of the report, Jonathan Tan, Regional Vice President of A10 Networks for ASEAN and Pakistan, told Hackwarenews the need to change corporate attitudes and behaviors in the ever-present threat of cyber-attacks.

“We believe that a business’ cyber defense infrastructure is critical,” said Tan.

For instance, the simple practice of changing password regularly and the two-factor or multi-factor authentication can make a difference in cyber-security. Regular email reminders for updating passwords can also help to minimize data breaches.

“The enterprises must also take on a proactive and ongoing approach towards educating the workforce on cyber security threats and precautions.” he concluded.

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