Every business represents a treasure trove of data for today's hackers. But it's not always your bank information they are after: It's your customers. Your customer's personal information, login information, and even their online traffic and clicks are being targeted. Hackers have found dozens of ways to use a compromised e-commerce website to steal identities, purchases, and customer activities — and the harm they cause ranges from irritating to life-ruining.

Modern businesses are now responsible for not just properly handling customer data, but also safeguarding customers from cyberattacks and data theft.

Phishing is when hackers impersonate a trusted contact for malicious purposes. In this context, a phishing attack can involve impersonating your e-commerce business and support team to trick customers into revealing personal information or exposing their accounts to theft. Social engineering takes phishing to the next level, implementing advanced manipulation tactics to create a sense of fear or urgency.

Hackers usually accomplish phishing by creating a fake version of a trusted domain with identifiable differences. However, if they manage to infiltrate your website, they may send phishing messages directly from your official domain. These messages steal customer information and also erode your brand's customer trust.

Phishing attacks can be effective, but you can prevent them by preparing your customers to defend themselves. First, strengthen your defenses against infiltration to prevent attackers from using your website as a phishing base. Second, educate your customers on how to keep their accounts safe. Inform them about the questions your support team will never ask, such as one-time codes, passwords, or bank card numbers.

Malware is malicious software that can be uploaded to your e-commerce website server. It hijacks your data resources, exfiltrates customer information, and transmits it back to the hacker who initiated the attack. Through malware data exfiltration, hackers can steal thousands of customer data files. This includes their names, passwords, emails, and even their home addresses and bank card information. Malware compromises your website and will continue to harm it as long as it persists.

There are various types of malware, including trojans, worms, adware, and spyware. Each type has a different infiltration and attack profile. For example, adware may insert infected advertisements into your web pages, while spyware may collect your information. However, there is no rule that these functions might overlap in a single malware attack.

The best way to protect against malware is to scan and monitor your servers regularly. This way, you can ensure that there is no hidden resource, data access, or unauthorized network activity.

Unfortunately, even third-party vendors can put your website and data security at risk. Hackers who exploit the vulnerabilities of an e-commerce business can then attack their entire supply chain partner list to target customers throughout the supply network. This can occur any time a third-party vendor connects to your data structures without taking the proper precautions to prevent unauthorized access or malicious data transfer.

It is essential to build a robust data defense structure and create a space for supply chain connections that cannot directly access your core servers and data structures. By keeping third-party suppliers at digital arm's length, you can coordinate business logistics without putting your data - or your customers' data - at risk.

It is even possible for insider threats to put your customers at risk. Employees who have access to sensitive data may choose to abuse their power. Employees who steal customer data may be able to attack your customers directly or sell that information to hacker communities. Trusted employee accounts can also be compromised, even if your team does everything right.

The best way to prevent insider threats from malicious employees or hacked employee accounts is with Identity and Access Management (IAM) and least-trust implementation. Here, each employee has a personal account that can only access the exact data they need to do their job. Unrelated access is denied by default, and unusual activity - like copying or transmitting large amounts of data or protected data - immediately triggers an investigation.

Ransomware can hold your e-commerce website, business network, or data hostage until you pay a ransom. It has grown in popularity and sophistication over the last decade with an increasing number of reported ransomware attacks on both essential and non-essential industries each year. However, ransomware no longer just locks up your system. Hackers often threaten to release stolen information, and even if you pay the "ransom", there is no guarantee your data will remain safe. A single ransomware attack can lead to significant data loss, loss of trust with your customers, and financial damage from the market impact and regulatory fines.

Responding to ransomware requires a combination of comprehensive data encryption and a robust backup restoration plan. Encryption helps ensure stolen data cannot be read, while backup restoration allows you to wipe the ransomware (and other types of malware) from your system and "reload from save" for your entire business network or affected systems.

We live in a time of rapid data technology development. This reflects the vicious battle that hackers and cybersecurity experts continue to wage against each other. Both sides strive to develop new techniques to infiltrate and stop infiltrations. Recent AI innovations, for example, offer a foreboding future in terms of intuitive hacking developments, rapid defense cracking, and extrapolation of personal data from partial data exfiltration.

To match these developments, expect equal preemptive and responsive defenses from the cybersecurity sector. To keep your e-commerce business and customers safe, it is vital to stay informed about evolving threats and defensive methods.

Quttera provides an advanced tool designed to keep your e-commerce website malware-free. With comprehensive scanning and in-depth analysis of every file, we can help you ensure malware has nowhere to hide on your website and business servers. We also offer professionally led malware removal services to remove any threats that put your customers and business at risk. Contact us today to learn more or sign up for a ThreatSign! website security and malware removal plans.