[INFOGRAPHICS] E-commerce Application Security- How To Protect Your Applications?
The more the e-commerce sector has flourished with the advent of technology in the recent years, the more it has become susceptible to attacks. Smart hackers deploy a number of crafty techniques to steal data including customer credit card information, phone numbers etc.
These information can be sold in the black market that will earn hackers a good fortune. Application security has become a major focus point for orgnizations of all size. With the emergence of m-commerce, mobile application security is also a pressing need of the hour.
A report in International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering categorizes the types of attacks on electronic commerce sector into three.
- Denial of Service
- Unauthorized access
- Theft and Fraud
Denial of Service attacks as the name suggests is to neglect users the service they look for by sending a massive amount of irrelevant data to the server and bring it to a halt. Due to the inundation of data, the server slows down and eventually breaks down. Distributed Denial Service of Attacks (DDoS) is a kind of DoS attack in which the hackers use multiple third-party systems to send unsolicited data to the server.
DDoS and backdoor attacks against e-commerce websites and applications are on the rise as the results can be lucrative for hackers. DDoS attacks top the list of attacks against e-commerce websites for the year 2014-15.
Backdoors or trapdoors are installed by programmers so that they can access the codes for troubleshooting. These backdoors bypass the security infrastructure and hence easily fall as a prey to hackers.
Other than these security hacks there are other handful of techniques including SQL Injection attacks, Cross-site scripting that grabs the attention of a hacker for an easy breach in security.
In SQL injection, attackers insert a malicious code into the SQL statement that executes undesired actions to compromise the security of the entire system. Through this, the attacker could get hold of the Relational Database Management System (RDBMS).
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is a method in which the hackers insert malicious codes in the client-side of the web application. Through the vulnerable website, the attacker would deliver malicious codes to the visitor’s browser.
The number of attacks is numerous and with every attack, the reliability and trustworthiness of websites come under question and hence it is of huge concerns for any brand. But these attacks cannot remain as nemesis as there are precautionary measures and best practices that make your e-commerce application less vulnerable to such attacks.
Refer the infographics below to know about some common patterns of e-commerce application attacks, what do hackers look for during such attacks and the precautionary measures to avoid them.
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