E-Commerce website owners feel the heat, because at the beginning of the Christmas season, traffic will increase significantly as people start shopping. The increase in data traffic makes e-commerce companies and their customers attractive targets for cybercriminals.
- POS credit card reader
- Redirect payment gateways
- Infect malware downloads
Credit card fraud is not a new threat to e-commerce buyers, but cardholders often don't know how hackers use their personal information to make money. Ecommerce owners can't ignore the fact that hackers are watching your activity, and the next target can be you. Needless to say, you are endangering your website and your business by not following the best security practices and being PCI compliant.
Point of sale credit card processing
When a card is swiped through a reader, code passes the card's details to the hackers who have already imported malware into the machine's checkout process.
The attackers inject the wipers with malware after reading the vulnerabilities on the website. Most attackers are well informed and have done their homework. You create a backdoor entry for the website and the owner cannot see that something is wrong. The hackers will not deface the homepage of the website, but will maintain a loop there to track the activity. When data is fed in, it goes into the hands of the hacker.
Doubtful payment gateway
As mentioned above, hackers are intelligent and know how a process works. No matter how good or how good a payment gateway is, hackers will find a way to jeopardize it. The hacker can clone the website payment gateway page so that users can tell no difference between the hacker page and the original website. In the end, the buyer sends the payment to the questionable gateway. Interestingly, the inventory of the e-commerce website marks sales.
This is where PCI compliance is so important for e-commerce sites. E-commerce websites have traditionally opted for a strong firewall. So if hackers try to access your website, they will be blocked and cannot make any changes.
Virus or malware downloads
Malware attacks are not e-commerce specific, they attack everyone and every company, but malware infection can be devastating for the e-commerce website, especially during the shopping season. Hackers are one step ahead. Only if they have access to an e-commerce website will they place malicious codes that infect visitors' computers. When buyers shop, they receive malware with every click.
Google and antivirus companies can now easily identify whether malicious code is running in the background of a website. If malicious code is found, the website will be blacklisted. Users receive warnings when they visit the e-commerce website. Due to poor traffic, owners need to look at their website to determine the next step.
How to secure e-commerce sites
Hackers are often a step ahead of business owners and develop their strategy to avoid detection. As always, the common factor through which hackers can compromise websites is the vulnerability. These vulnerabilities could be a poor third-party CMS or an outdated patch. Therefore, make sure that you have closed these gaps on your website.
Search your website for weaknesses or signs of compromise. However, note that hacks are not visible in the source code. These files are aimed at your customers and are rather hidden in the website database. The best way to protect yourself is through cloud-based security with depth detection to protect you from all potential risks.