7 main threats to E-commerce and best practices to reduce them

Over time, e-commerce has gained popularity worldwide, and data from Statista indicate that the penetration rate of digital buyers currently stands at 61.6% and is estimated to reach 65.2% in 2021.

Despite the advances that have been made in recent years in terms of technology, E-commerce has always presented a weakness, security.

According to information provided by Deloitte, “The numbers of e-commerce fraud reach millions of dollars annually and continue to increase” and while it is true there is evidence of many frauds and insecurity in electronic commerce, we can also attribute these to the lack of information or carelessness on the part of users and service providers in the use of ICTs.

The main threats in E-commerce are the following:

1. Malware
   Its objective is to infiltrate or damage a computer without the owner's consent. Obtaining the user key and password or even programs that corrupt browsing infrastructures and redirect users to fake websites.

2. Phising
   is one of the methods most used by cybercriminals to scam and fraudulently obtain confidential information such as detailed credit card information or other banking information of the company or the victim.

3. Spoofing
   Its objective is to falsify data, modifying it in some way to obtain a benefit.

4. Pharming
   Criminals redirect their victims to fake websites using various methods, such as emails with flashy subjects for victims to open and attack; jeopardizing private information.

5. Accidental or intentional deletion of information
   Regarding internal and human risks, there is the deletion of business information, in which an organization worker may be involved who mistakenly or intentionally erases a part of information important to the company, so in most cases there is no way to recover such information.

6. Natural disaster
   The dangers of e-commerce not only involve attacks on the network or business page, but also natural disasters can stop e-commerce operations. This is if the organization does not have security measures that protect complete business information and that, once the disaster occurs, it can consult its information without any problem.

7. Interruption of services
   Interruption of services can become very common in e-commerce due to server failures or unforeseen changes due to direct attacks such as those mentioned above. Threat that affects the company's reputation. Therefore, it is necessary to have high availability to offer consumer confidence and not stop their financial activity.

Users and companies mainly focus on virus attacks, access to their computers and account security, but they leave aside other critical aspects, such as digital certificates, information backup and data encryption, which are necessary processes to carry out Internet operations with greater security.

Websites seek to give users an excellent browsing and shopping experience, to achieve this, it is necessary to have the right service strategy and technological platform to always be available, with high security and protected against any contingency.

Compucloud has developed environments in the AWS cloud that allow us to build, manage and activate digital platforms to enhance the customer experience through the 5 pillars of best practices for having an infrastructure with digital armor, which ensure, optimization of costs, reliability, efficiencies and operation of the infrastructure with, an extraordinary digital experience.

The platform that Compucloud manages is governed by the following principles:

• Operational Excellence: Process automation, response to events and constant server monitoring to ensure proper execution.

• Cost optimization: Cost monitoring, analysis and reporting are the basis of a best-practice scheme that optimizes resources and guarantees minimum costs under the pay-per-use premise.

• Performance: Efficient utilization of IT and IT resources. This includes selecting appropriate types and sizes of resources based on workload requirements, performance monitoring, and making informed decisions to maintain effectiveness as business needs evolve.

• Security: Data confidentiality and integrity, identifying and managing who can do what to manage privileges, protect systems, and establish controls to detect potential security risk events.

• Reliability Configuration and development of recovery plans for any threat or error that may affect business continuity.

Electronic Commerce is a strategic activity that companies must begin to implement and strengthen in order to achieve competitive advantage and development, however, there are several risks in information security, and both the companies that provide the electronic commerce service and the users who access these services are responsible for minimizing the dangers that will always exist.

Sources:

• Ortiz, D. O. Daniel. (2018b, May 28). Risks of electronic fraud in Ecommerce. Retrieved May 19, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com.mx/riesgos-de-fraude-electronico-en-el-e-commerce/

• National Observatory of Technologies and SI, “ONTSI,” [Online]. Available: http://www.ontsi.red.es/ontsi/es/indicador/empresas-que-han-tenido-alg%C3%BAnproblemade-seguridad-en-los-%C3%BAltimos-doce-meses.

• Ecommerce Foundation, “Eccomerce Foundation,” 2014. [Online]. Retrieved May 19, 2019: www.ecommercefoundation.com.