Cybersecurity researchers are calling it the largest password compilation leak of all time.
On July 4, a newly registered user on a popular hacking forum posted a file containing nearly 10 billion compromised passwords in plaintext. The post was first noticed by researchers at Cybernews.
“Xmas came early this year,” user “ObamaCare” wrote on the forum. “I present to you a new rockyou2024 password list with over 9.9 billion passwords!”
The e-commerce industry has grown exponentially, with total e-commerce sales for Q3 alone reaching $284 billion and expectations of sales passing $1 trillion in total for 2023. As an e-commerce business owner, you have unique challenges compared to brick-and-mortar shop owners. E-commerce businesses have unique rules and regulations to follow, and cybersecurity is a top priority to ensure all data stored online is protected.
We spoke with industry experts about the challenges e-commerce small businesses must contend with and how to overcome these hurdles. Here are 12 of the most prevalent challenges e-commerce business owners face today.
What are the top e-commerce challenges for SMBs?
Startup companies can be lauded for their innovation, creativity and imaginative thinking, and rightly so. However, when it comes to cybersecurity issues and resolving them, perhaps not all startups know what to do or what to look out for. They often don’t have the cybersecurity tips they need to protect their assets.
One of the most important aspects a business leader can research and ask themselves is what is cyber threat intelligence? By the knowing the full details about that, business leaders can fully prepare themselves with the knowledge of knowing what to look out for.
If cybersecurity issues are left unattended, then this can contribute to devastating fraud consequences. Without effective security measures in place, fraudsters can easily take advantage of things.
In 2021, the estimated daily cost of fraud surpassed £375m, and this was the equivalent of consumers being able to purchase over 136 million daily cups of coffee!
With that in mind, let’s explore what cybersecurity measures can be taken to resolve any issues, as per the following ideas:
Tech stocks, like the rest of the broader market, have seen their fair share of ups and downs since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February. But for one part of the technology sector — cybersecurity -— it’s been a roaring bull market for the past few weeks.
The ETFMG Prime Cyber Security (HACK) and First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity (CIBR) exchange-traded funds, which both own shares of top cybersecurity companies such as Zscaler (ZS), CrowdStrike (CRWD), Cloudflare (NET), Fortinet (FTNT) and Splunk (SPLK), have each surged about 10% since Russia attacked Ukraine.
The rally makes sense. After all, there are growing concerns about cyber warfare from Russia against the West in response to sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime.
The past twelve months in cybersecurity have been a rough ride. In cybersecurity, everything is broken — it’s just a matter of finding it — and this year felt like everything broke at once, especially towards the end of the year. But for better or worse, we end the year knowing more than we did before. Here we look back at the year that’s been, and what we learned along the way.
1. Ransomware costs businesses because of downtime, not ransom payments
Data privacy and cybersecurity became buzzwords in 2020, and for good reason. Due to bad privacy practices and cybersecurity mistakes, businesses both big and small were affected by data security vulnerabilities.
Data breaches such as the Solar Winds hack, Nuclear Weapons Agency Breach, and Clearview AI’s entire client list being stolen were just a few results of software vulnerabilities. Hackers gained access to T-Mobile’s employees’ email accounts, compromising customer and employee data, and Nintendo left 160,000 users vulnerable from a massive hijacking campaign.
Even Twitter experienced a large phishing attack that resulted in penetration tools being stolen. The number of attacks were ample, proving that businesses must take cybersecurity and data privacy more seriously.
Companies will lose $400 billion to hackers this year.
On top of the financial costs, companies can lose intellectual property, personal data, hours of productivity, and consumer trust. What’s worse, companies often don’t even think about cybersecurity until it’s too late.
Not taking a proactive and thorough approach to securing your data and systems early in your startup journey could cause you to lose contracts and stall your growth. If you want to scale a B2B SaaS company quickly, you can’t afford to trip over data security issues. Otherwise, you’re preventing growth and leaving money on the table when big prospects dismiss you as “too risky.”
In the office or at home, you may be protected from online threats thanks to a robust cybersecurity solution for your internal network. But what about when you’re on a trip? You won’t be protected by your office’s network security and must depend on hotel and conference center Wi-Fi, which aren’t always safe. Using your mobile devices on the on the go increases your risk of being exposed to online threats – hackers are always looking for opportunities to infect mobile devices and use them to gain access to the greater network.
When on a business trip and constantly using your mobile device for work, you need to be wary that you’re more at risk of attack. There are certain best practices that all employees should follow when traveling with your work devices.
ON THE LIST of computer security advice standbys, “update your software” ranks just below with “don’t use the password ‘password.'” But as the cybersecurity research community gets to the bottom of the malware outbreak that exploded out of Ukraine to paralyze thousands of networks around the world last week—shutting down banks, companies, transportation and electric utilities—it’s become clear that software updates themselves were the carrier of that pathogen. Cybersecurity analysts warn that it’s not the only recent incident when hackers have hijacked software’s own immune system to deliver their infections. And it won’t be the last.
Cybersecurity is in the news lately, with President Obama recently proposing legislation that would set federal standards for notifying consumers about data breaches. Consumers aren’t the only ones worried about a cyber attack: Small business owners, too, are concerned, says a recent report from the National Small Business Association (NSBA).
More than nine out of 10 small business owners in the study cited cybersecurity as a concern. This is not an unfounded fear: Half of them report they’ve already suffered a cyber attack, with 61 percent of those attacks taking place in the last 12 months.
What happened to these entrepreneurs as a result of the attack? A service interruption was the most common problem, followed by the business website going down. In addition, 19 percent had either their business credit cards or bank account hacked.
The cost of cyber attacks is also on the rise. In 2014 the average cyber attack cost a small business $20,752, a substantial increase from the average of $8,699 an attack cost businesses in 2013.
Dispatches From The Front 