Hands Up! Well, that does not quite work in the digital commerce space. With the rapid proliferation of eCommerce lately, and eCommerce sites have become digital briefcases carrying vast sums of money, making them hotbeds for exploitation and cyber attacks.
2021 is witnessing a massive growth of 18% in the losses created by the eCommerce fraud, from $17.5 billion last year to more than $20 billion in 2021. As stated by Juniper Research, this unbelievable rise in numbers has been accounted for in a single year.
Furthermore, the eCommerce industry reports around 32.4% of all attacks. While 50% of the small eCommerce retailers are grieving over the attacks becoming severe and more frequent. Besides, the studies also reflect that malicious requests account for 29% of the traffic accessing the website traffic.
eCommerce fraud will pack a sucker punch and not differentiate between a small player or the big fish. Any losses your eCommerce store may incur will look pale compared to the hit your site will take in terms of trust and reputation. Buyers will be wary of shopping at your digital store, however great your product offering might be.
The numbers unmask how you can’t afford to overlook eCommerce security.
If you are an e-entrepreneur, eCommerce security is indispensable. Thus you are required to shuffle the books to invest in the latest eCommerce security protocols
Let’s explore the most imminent potential threats you might encounter and your ways out:
1. Credit Card Fraud.
The old Classic Credit Card fraud tops the list and afflicts online businesses and retailers.
One reason for credit card fraud to be this prevalent is because it’s untraceable. Or, let’s say, quite tricky to spot if your site carries out thousands of transactions every day. These are some tell-tale signs to identify credit card frauds-
- A higher-value sale than what’s usually received or expected.
- The shipping address is different from the billing address.
- A successful order preceded by multiple unsuccessful attempts.
- The customer’s IP address doesn’t match with the location of the order’s billing address.
However, verifying these methods of transactions is essential for both parties. Significantly when it can cost your online reputation, and you might have to pay back whoever’s card has been scammed.
Thus, staying vigilant is vital against credit card fraud to build rapport and protect your business.
2. Phishing
Phishing makes room for itself among the top five security threats since hackers have become more tech-savvy in recent years. They masquerade as the authorized eCommerce website and send emails to potential customers. It tricks them into revealing their personal information, transactional data since they put out the trusted website’s exact copy or layout. These make the customers believe them legitimate businesses asking for their information. This has counted several customers falling and becoming their prey.
Phishing usually inculcates emails that ask customers to take a specific action and make them mandatory. This requires eCommerce sites to be extra careful with their authenticity and watchfulness, especially in communicating possible customer threats. Warn them of actions that are not called from the authenticated website, and immediately report any activity that seems off-board. When customers sign up with their requisite information, hackers access related personal data, further being exploited.
3. Distributed Denial of Services Attack (DDoS Attacks)
DDoS attacks are when the website’s servers receive many requests from untraceable IP addresses. IoT drives the manipulated devices and the sophisticated attacks on your website. They can pull down your whole website to go offline. These circumstances expose your website to additional attacks like malware infection.
In recent months, the rise of DDoS attacks has been record-breaking. Cybersecurity researchers at Netscout unearthed 5.4 million DDoS attacks during 2021’s first half only, a figure representing an 11% rise compared with the same period last year.
4. Malware
Malware is software that cybercriminals explicitly design to damage a computer network or gain confidential information. Techniques like SQL injection can help cyber-criminals with:
- Control over computers, networks, and your system data.
- Push malicious emails or messages from the website’s behalf.
- Fake their identity.
- Tamper with databases
- Erase and block data access
Since malware practices are also evolving with antivirus techniques. You must keep your foot firmly grounded in the latest and technologically advanced antivirus protocols. Additionally, install firewalls to keep every online activity checked. Also, store as little sensitive data on your website as possible.
5. Account Acquisition:
The online selling and buying of login details is a dynamic industry up-seeding itself in the darker corners of your web. By getting their hands on these login credentials, they can send bots to run username and password combinations. These combinations can run on multiple eCommerce sites. Once they land successfully, they get free rein to place orders, access all sensitive information like card details and whatnot.
What are your ways out?
- Use your personal servers.
Ensure that you host your eCommerce website on a standalone server dedicated to you. Sharing online space with other sites is risky, especially if either of them has been inflicted with potential cyber-attacks; the malware files can hit the whole server, including yours.
- Maintain your data backups
You cannot afford a lower frequency of keeping your data backups for your entire database and all essential files. If you’re straining out, considering yours’ it is a large platform. The general rule says the bigger the website, the more frequently you should perform backups.
- Keep your security plugins and safety components in check.
Security plugins are mandatory to deter cyberattacks and are installed for similar threats. However, the online market for these plugins is enormous, and it comprises firewalls, two-factor authentications, and much more.
- Keep your eCommerce website updated.
Irrespective of your eCommerce platform and CRM, don’t stand down in running frequent updates with official security patches and plugins. Any standing bugs or loopholes can raise significant vulnerability for your website and expose it to cyber-predators. Hire software developers who can identify these threats and bridge solutions to stop them before the damage starts.
Do Not Get Bewildered. Do the right thing!
The numbers and possible threats might overwhelm you initially. Yet being aware of all possible ways cybercriminals can harm your website can help you stay vigilant in protecting your website and your customers. These necessary steps will help defend against cyber-attacks and avoid any standing damage.
Do the best thing- For your eCommerce security website and your customers associated with it. Undeniable precautions are mandatory without overlooking the repercussions. So your customers keep coming back to you for a frictionless and delightful shopping experience.
