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Table of contents
1.
Introduction
2.
E-Commerce
3.
Threats to E-Commerce
4.
Electronic Payment Threat
4.1.
Fraud
4.2.
Tax Evasion
4.3.
Payment Conflicts
4.4.
E-Cash
4.4.1.
Backdoors Attacks 
4.4.2.
Direct Access Attacks
4.4.3.
Denial of service attacks
4.4.4.
Eavesdropping
5.
Personal Information Threats
5.1.
Scraping 
5.2.
SQL Injection
5.3.
Brute Force Attacks
5.4.
Trojan horses
6.
Credit/Debit Card Threats
6.1.
ATM
7.
E-Commerce Security Solutions
7.1.
Secured Payment Gateway
7.2.
Use Firewall
7.3.
Anti-malware and Antivirus Software
7.4.
Prioritize Updates
7.5.
Encryption
7.6.
E-commerce Security Plugins
8.
FAQs
9.
Key Takeaways
Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024
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E-Commerce and Security Threats to E-Commerce

Author Apoorv Dixit
1 upvote

Introduction

The evolution of the internet and technology has opened infinite gateways to engage consumers. Buying, selling, and doing transactions on the internet is pretty common nowadays. It has made our lives easy and has become of lifestyle. However, this comes with some risks and causes many scams and frauds if not appropriately taken care of. In this article, we will discuss e-commerce and the security threats related to e-commerce.

               
                                                                                Source: bsscommerce.com

E-Commerce

E-commerce, electronic commerce, or internet commerce refers to buying and selling goods and services using the internet and transferring money to execute this transaction. More formally, it refers to the commercial transactions which are conducted online. E-commerce has become one of the largest industries in the world to function, and big industry has big risks.

                                          
                                                                                        Source: dashtechinc.com

Threats to E-Commerce

There are mainly three types of e-commerce threats: 

  1. Accidental threats: This kind of threat is due to glitches between the consumer and seller end, such as internet fault.
  2. Purpose threats: These threats are due to third-party intervention between a transaction that is trying to breach.
  3. Threats due to human error are quite common and caused by mistakes by a user; for example, the user refreshes the page while the transaction is going on, causing it to fail.
     

Among all the categories mentioned above, the most common threats are electronic payments threats, e-cash, data misuse, credit card frauds, etc.

Let us discuss some of the major threats and possible solutions to overcome them.

Electronic Payment Threat

In e-commerce, everything is taking place online, which is also applicable to the finance and banking sector. Consumers can buy anything they need just with the help of their mobiles and laptops, and all their transactions and even major banking transactions are online. But handling money online is also dangerous, and hackers can use this to their advantage if proper safety measures are not followed. The risks associated with electronic payments are:

Fraud

Internet fraud may include spam, scams, spyware, identity theft, phishing, or internet banking fraud. Electronic payment has a considerable risk of fraud. The computing devices use the identity of the user for authorizing payment. Identity can include passwords or pins, and if a third person gets hold of the identity, it can lead to fraud. Even money can be stolen by a third party this way.

Tax Evasion

In online buying and selling, things become a little bit blurry, and Internal Revenue Services faces the challenge. It becomes challenging for them to monitor the ethnicity of an organization and process tax collection transactions.

Payment Conflicts

Errors during transactions are possible due to technical glitches, and these things sometimes lead to conflicts of payments, and users end up losing their ransom.

E-Cash

E-cash is a paperless cash system. The concept is widely used in wallets like PayPal, Paytm, GooglePay, etc. E-cash has four major components, issuers, customers, merchants, and regulators. All the user's financial information is in a single application, and a security breach can lead to the loss of personal information and money. Some of the threats related to e-cash are:

Backdoors Attacks 

These are the attacks that give attackers unauthorized access to a system by bypassing normal authentication. These attacks work in the background and are hidden to users, therefore difficult to detect and dangerous.

Direct Access Attacks

In Direct Access Attacks, the hacker gets direct access to the device and installs programs in it without permission. These types of software have worms and automatically steal information from the device. 

To protect us from these kinds of attacks, we can use a firewall, go blacking or even change IP in the worst-case situations.

Denial of service attacks

A Denial of service attack or DoS attack prevents legitimate(real) users from accessing electronic devices. In this type of attack, the hacker breaks into the system and takes all accessibility from the user.

Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping is an unauthorized way by which a hacker listens to your private communication over the network, and the users are unaware of the conservation tracking by a hacker.

Personal Information Threats

Scraping 

This is a common practice generally done by competitive brands on sensitive data to get valuable information. The companies are very confidential about such information, but hackers can break into the system and gain access to data using it to their advantage, thus harming the users.

SQL Injection

In SQL injection, hackers use a query submission form to gain database access. They can misuse the data to their advantage. Moreover, they can corrupt and harm databases too.

Brute Force Attacks

This method is generally used to guess passwords and pins. Hackers try all the combinations of letters and numbers until they match the given password. They do this algorithm and multiple combinations.

Trojan horses

Trojan horse is malware that users download, thinking it is legitimate software. It can collect information like personal details, financial information, and user patterns.

Credit/Debit Card Threats

ATM

The fraudsters buzz around ATMs to steal card details. Some of the common ways used by them are:

  1. Skimming: In this, a device is attached to the card reader of the ATM to skim data from the card when it enters the machine.
  2. POS Theft: Here, the salesperson uses personal information for customers for personal benefits.
  3. Online Transactions: These are prone to attack hackers if proper security measures are not taken.
  4. Unwanted presence: Physical way of getting financial information. There are different rules at the ATM to minimize this kind of thing.
  5. Phishing: Scammers use false calls or messages to get information about users.
     

Now that we’ve discussed the threats possible in all aspects, it’s time to walk over the Solutions that can save us from these attacks. 

E-Commerce Security Solutions

There are many solutions for e-commerce threats that provide better security to users. Some popular ones are:

Secured Payment Gateway

This can be the best advice to follow during online transactions. If you use a secure payment gateway, all other risks get minimized. The gateways provide better policies to protect all its users. 

Use Firewall

Using a firewall is a prevalent technique that controls network traffic and protects users from outside attacks. It generally blocks security threats and protects consumers from hackers.

Anti-malware and Antivirus Software

A good antivirus or anti-malware software can detect and delete viruses, thus preventing user data, theft, or any other harmful activity.

Prioritize Updates

Updating antivirus, plugins, or software related to security from time to time is as important as installing them the first time. This guards you against any new kind of malware.

Encryption

This is quite a common method used to protect our information. Sensitive information is converted to ciphertext using a key so that hackers cannot read it later at the time of use; it can be restored to its original format(decryption) using the same key or a different key.

E-commerce Security Plugins

Various security plugins are available like SQLi, XSS, and bad bots that ensure website protection. They are easy to implement and work automatically once installed.

FAQs

  1. What is e-commerce security?
    E-commerce security is the protection of e-commerce assets from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction.|
     
  2. Why is E-commerce security important?
    E-commerce site security is critical for many reasons, like protecting the privacy and sensitive data of customers on a website, safeguarding the finances of an online business, preventing fraud and financial scams.
     
  3. What is pishing?
    Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. It occurs when an attacker masquerades as a trusted entity.
     
  4. What is a cyber attack?
    A cyber attack is an attempt to disable computers, steal data, or use a breached computer system to launch additional attacks.
     
  5. What causes a cyber attack?
    Cyber-attacks happen because hackers want your: business' financial details, customers' financial details, or other sensitive personal data.

Key Takeaways

In this article, we have extensively discussed e-commerce and the security threats related to e-Commerce. We talked about various threats, their types and also discussed solutions to e-commerce threats later in the article.

We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding e-commerce and security threats to e-commerce, if you would like to learn more, check out our articles What is Cyber SecurityCyber Security PrincipleWhat is Cryptography, and Cyber attacks and their Types. Do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow. 

Happy Learning!

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