Cybercrime
is a real threat to anyone doing business online. Target, Home Depot, Eddie
Bauer, and Vera Bradley are among many retailers that have been hit by
cybercrime in recent years. But your business doesn’t have to be a nationally
recognized brand to feel the effects of cybercrime.
Today,
retailers are the victims of the most cyber attacks of any industry. Small
ecommerce stores are not immune from cybercrime either. One Dutch researcher
found that 6,000 ecommerce stores were compromised by a JavaScript code meant
to “skim” customer payment information in the span of a year.
As an
online entrepreneur, you need to learn
how
to set up an ecommerce site that is safe and secure for your
business and your customers. Here are the common ways cybercrime harms
ecommerce businesses:
Stolen Data
Perhaps
the first thing consumers think of when they hear the term cybercrime is the
risk of their personal data being compromised. Cyber criminals often steal data
such as credit card numbers and other information from insecure retailers.
Hackers then use this information to commit fraud or sell the information to
others who’ll commit fraud.
Your
customers are trusting you with their personal payment information. Make sure
you have proper, up-to-date security measures in place to protect against data
theft.
Fraudulent Purchases
Fraudulent
purchases are transactions that are unauthorized by the credit card owner by a
third party. These purchases may be due to a lost or stolen credit card, or an
otherwise compromised method of payment. Keep an eye out for extra-large
orders, orders from unordinary geographic regions, and shipping addresses that
don’t match billing addresses. These are signs of possible fraudulent actions.
Social Spoofing
Social
spoofing happens when a cyber criminal poses as an authoritative body in order
to convince a consumer to reveal personal information. The criminal uses social
influence to get the information they want.
For
example, a spammer may send a message to a customer pretending to be their
bank. In the message, they may request personal information such as usernames,
passwords, credit card numbers, or other data. The consumer then shares this
information with the belief they are speaking with their bank when in fact they
are not.
If a
customer ever contacts you regarding a message you never sent, you may be the
target of a social spoofing attack.
DDoS Attacks
A
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack uses large amounts of traffic from
multiple sources in an attempt to make an online service unavailable. The target
is flooded with superfluous requests in order to overload systems and prevent
legitimate requests from being fulfilled.
Basically,
DDoS attacks can shut down an ecommerce website from processing any
transactions, because the system is overloaded with illegitimate requests.
While banks and other high-profile entities are more often the victim of these
attacks, it’s possible for DDoS attacks to target any web server.
Loss of Customers
Cybercrime
results in all kinds of headaches for businesses, but ultimately it leads to a
huge loss of customers. About
19 percent of American consumers surveyed said they
would stop shopping at a retailer that had been a victim of a cybersecurity
attack. Many companies affected by cybercrime are unable to regain the trust of
their customers, and their business is put in jeopardy.
How to Protect Your Ecommerce Business
The best
defense against cybersecurity issues to fully comply with
Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards. These standards outline
up-to-date practices to guard your business and your customers against cyber
threats.
Also,
make sure you work with a trusted payment processor. Giving your customers the
option to use a service like
PayPal to purchase
your products creates an extra level of protection for them and your business.
