Innovative digital tools and software are revolutionizing our lives, and e-commerce companies are making the most of these to improve the customer experience and boost their bottom lines.
However, e-commerce companies are facing a range of devastating threats, all of which could severely damage their reputation and have grave financial – and even regulatory – consequences.
Below, we’re going to break down the top five threats and how organizations can protect themselves against them today.
Web Scraping Attacks
Recommended solutions to mitigate the threat: DataDome, Cloudflare Bot Management, Kasada
In a web scraping attack, malicious bots harvest unstructured data from a target website or system. Once collected, this data is put into a structured format for use in various ways and applications. For e-commerce companies, web scraping is a real and present threat.
The presence of bad bots overrunning a site during the attack usually causes performance issues and even downtime, while the harvested data could be used to create a cloned version of a business’s website, give competitors an unfair advantage, or allow hackers access to sensitive data.
Experts estimate that online businesses lose around 2% of their potential revenue annually to web scraping, which highlights the seriousness of this issue. One of the recommended solutions, such as the Datadome scraping protection, can be a great first line of defence.
Cloud and Platform Security Issues
Recommended solutions to mitigate the threat: Wiz, Orca Security, Prisma Cloud (Palo Alto)
With an ever-increasing number of businesses using cloud-based services and systems, close attention must be paid to the security issues around these platforms. The key security threats are data breaches and unmanaged attack surfaces.
The latter represents the total exposure of an organization’s digital environment, with every workload added or used increasing the attack surface.
If a cybercriminal gains access to a business’s cloud-based data and systems, the resultant chaos is virtually unlimited. It could give hackers access to sensitive data, process systems, servers, customer accounts, and more.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Risks
Recommended solutions to mitigate the threat: Okta, AzureAD, Google Workspace
Without a robust IAM risk mitigation strategy in place, as well as one of the recommended solutions above, businesses are risking a serious data breach. With the average cost of a data breach now standing at $4.45 million, the situation is urgent.
The most common IAM risks include unauthorized access, weak passwords, inadequate access and control policies, insider threats, and misconfigurations.
Multi-cloud environments and home-working are exacerbating the danger this threat poses to organizations. It’s important that e-commerce businesses assess where vulnerabilities lie and take steps to close these loopholes urgently.
Threat Detection and Incident Response
Recommended solutions to mitigate the threat: Splunk, Datadog, Sumo Logic
To stay safe from a wide range of cyber threats, from phishing scams to credential stuffing attacks to hacking, an organization must implement solid threat detection and incident response processes.
This requires a multi-pronged approach, which includes using advanced techniques and tools to analyze user behavior, taking prompt action to deal with an emerging or occurring risk, and real-time assessment that allows businesses to react and adapt.
Without such a strategy in place, an organization is wide open to serious digital attacks, which could escalate catastrophically to include even the most crucial systems and data.
Brand and Trust Protection Threats
Recommended solutions to mitigate the threat: Bolster, Mimecast, Proofpoint
One element of cybersecurity that’s often overlooked is brand and trust protection threats. What do these look like in the real world?
It could be unauthorized duplication of a business’s logo or images, cloning of a business’s digital assets or products, or the hijacking of an organization’s entire social media account. The damage that can be done to a brand’s reputation in this way is often significant, resulting in both a major loss of trust and revenue.
Creating a Cybersecurity Strategy
The first step to protecting your e-commerce business is to create a robust cybersecurity strategy. This involves assessing current vulnerabilities and critical digital assets and putting in place strong security controls.
The cybersecurity strategy should incorporate policies that detail incident response processes, security protocols, and employee training guidelines. Once the policies have been drawn up, the controls should be implemented.
These could include intrusion detection systems, multi-factor authentication, and encryption. It’s also important that a cybersecurity strategy aligns with industry best practices and is on the right side of any legal regulations.
But the work’s not done once the strategy has been devised and implemented. It needs to be regularly assessed and updated to ensure it continues to provide the highest possible level of protection and remains robust enough to withstand even newly emerging threats.
Tips to Keep Your E-Commerce Site Safe
There are plenty of steps you can take to secure your e-commerce site from cyber threats. Run through this checklist to make sure your site is safe:
Use a Secure Platform and Host
Not all e-commerce platforms offer the same level of security, so be sure to check your host’s security credentials before signing up. If you’re unsure, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a provider for more information.
Install an SSL Certificate
Install an SSL certificate to encrypt the traffic between your website and your customers to beef up security. This certificate will change your website’s prefix from “http” to “https” – a sign to visitors that you take their digital safety and privacy seriously.
Process Payments Securely
It’s vital to use a trusted payment processing provider and never store customers’
payment details on your own server. It’s also a good idea to require CVV checks and AVS (address verification system) when payments are taken and monitor site activity for potential red flags. The latter includes multiple failed payment attempts and large first-time orders.
Deploy Secure Log-In Processes
Your e-commerce log-in page is like a front door: if it’s not secure, hackers will force their way in. As well as multi-factor authentication, it’s advisable to deploy a password manager and limit failed log-in attempts.
Monitor Activity Logs and Incorporate Fraud Detection
Some e-commerce host platforms incorporate built-in fraud detection, but it’s important to look into applying additional security layers such as strong firewalls.
As well as paying attention to automatically produced logs, manually monitor your e-commerce store activity, too, looking carefully for red flags that could otherwise be missed.
Keep Your E-Commerce Platform Updated
An easy way to help keep your e-commerce store safe is to simply keep it updated, in terms of plug-ins and platforms. Hackers frequently target outdated versions of these things, making the most of their security vulnerabilities.
As well as fraud, this protects your business from something that’s more innocent, such as simple human error, but that can be just as costly to remedy.
Limit User Access
It’s an uncomfortable thought, but some e-commerce threats come within, rather than outside, the business. Mitigate this risk by thinking carefully about which employees can access what and limiting full access only to those who really need it.
Don’t Forget to Schedule Automatic Backups
With so much else to do, scheduling backups can easily get forgotten. Schedule backups to happen regularly and automatically to ensure they happen. This way, should the worst happen and you discover your e-commerce site has crashed completely due to a cyberattack, you can get up and running again.
It’s Vital to Ramp Up Your Business’s Digital Defences in 2025
While it may be tempting to bury our heads in the sand when it comes to e-commerce cyber threats, doing so is likely to store up massive problems for the future.
With cybercriminals using ever more sophisticated techniques and tactics, taking simple steps (such as using multi-factor authentication) may be vital, but is often not enough.
For e-commerce companies, the best approach is to combine a robust security strategy with using one (or more) of the recommended solutions mentioned above. Doing so will create a formidable defense to safeguard your business’s digital assets and reputation.
