Ecommerce security is crucial for online retailers and shoppers due to the increasing number of online attacks and frauds. Four areas of e-commerce security are privacy, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation. Six types of security risks include weak authentication, cross-site scripting, SQL injection, price manipulation, buffer overflows, and web application attacks.
Ecommerce security is a concern for many online retailers. With the growing number of online transactions being conducted, so does the number of online attacks and frauds. It is important for online retailers to prevent e-commerce problems, because loss of trust in an online seller can lead to business failure. Ecommerce security is also a concern for shoppers due to the headache and wasted time that comes with trying to resolve issues due to identity theft or computer hijacking.
Four areas make up e-commerce security: privacy, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation. Privacy is the process of preventing unauthorized people from viewing information. Integrity is the act of protecting a message so that it cannot be changed on its way to its destination. Authentication means that the sending and receiving computers must recognize and identify each other. Non-repudiation is proof that messages are received.
Six different forms of e-commerce security risks pose the greatest concern. Weak authentication and authorization is a major concern. Ways to recognize this problem are that the website allows users to make multiple login attempts without locking the account or that it does not pass session IDs over secure socket layer (SSL).
Another common ecommerce concern is cross-site scripting, or XSS. Cross-site scripting works on the assumption that we often don’t understand what we’re clicking on or accepting online. With cross-site scripting, a malicious script hijacks JavaScript and often displays an “okay” box for the user to click. Clicking allows the script to collect session cookies or even redirect your browser to a malicious or phishing website. This is the type of security breach that occurs when people think they are accessing their bank or credit card website, but in fact end up on a malicious site that looks identical to the one they think they are visiting.
SQL injection occurs when the attacker inserts their own malicious SQL metacharacters into code submitted by a user. This code, if not rejected, allows the user to gain backdoor access to the merchant site, potentially gaining access to credit card information and other transaction details. Price manipulation is another business problem targeting the trading website. Allows the attacker to change the price in the online shopping cart. Change your payment information as it moves between your browser and web server.
Buffer overflows are a basic e-commerce security problem that occurs when the attacker overloads the database with data. The script cannot handle the information and throws an error message. The error message pinpoints the exact location of the error, allowing the attacker to access the commerce site’s administration area. The most aggressive and devastating form of e-commerce security vulnerability is when a web application attacks a computer, allowing the attacker to execute its own operating system commands on the user’s computer.
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