SQL injection is such a common tactic in cybercrime that it’s been named a top security threat by the OWASP Top 10, a powerful awareness document representing the most critical security risks to web applications. If you’re not protecting your website from this type of attack, your business and customers are at risk.
So what is an SQL injection attack, and why is this method so popular among professional and amateur cybercriminals?
In November 2018, security researchers from Check Point made an interesting discovery about the wildly popular game “Fortnite” — the website was vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks. Thanks to an old, unsecured webpage, researchers found out that potential hackers could gain unauthorized access to users’ accounts, in-game currency, and audio recording capabilities — all without ever needing their login information.
The cross-site scripting attacks that dominate headlines tend to be larger-profile cases with big-name companies; in reality, businesses of all sizes can fall victim to this kind of cyberattack. In fact, cross-site scripting attacks account for 31% of all attacks — making it the most common type of attack (followed by SQL injection at 20%).
A backdoor attack is a type of malware that gives cybercriminals unauthorized access to a website. Cybercriminals install the malware through unsecured points of entry, such as outdated plug-ins or input fields. Once they enter through the back door, they have access to all your company’s data, including customers’ personal identifiable information (PII).
As the name suggests, a backdoor attack is stealthy, and cybercriminals often slip in undetected.
The beginning of November brings us a brand-new update for the Joomla! 3.x series that addresses two new security vulnerabilities and improves the overall user experience by addressing 15 bug fixes. As of November 5th, you can download or update to the latest version, which is 3.9.4. All security vulnerabilities are considered low; however, it is still advisable to update your Joomla! installs as soon as possible to avoid any potential issues.
The holidays are just around the corner, and with it comes the inevitable holiday shopping rush. In fact, holiday shopping can account for up to 30 percent of annual sales for online retailers. As Black Friday kicks off what is expected to be another lucrative online holiday season, there are vast opportunities for cybercriminals to steal shopper’s information through spoofed websites, malicious coupon code links, and phishy marketing campaigns. Any downtime resulting from an attack can severely impact holiday profits, not to mention annual revenue. This time of year, it’s more important than ever that ecommerce businesses make cybersecurity a top priority in order to protect their website, customers, and bottom line.
Additionally, consumers should be aware of the risks that exist online to defend their information proactively. Being cyber-aware while shopping online is the new reality for consumers, and it becomes even more imperative during the holiday season.
In the world of cybersecurity, the looming menace of advanced persistent threats and state-sponsored attack groups tend to dominate the headlines. However, research indicates that phishing attacks are the most common threat — by far.
Microsoft’s “Security Intelligence Report, Volume 24” shows a 250% increase in the number of phishing attacks since 2018. If you think the primary victims of email-related breaches are large corporations with vast amounts of data, think again. Small and mid-size businesses are now the preferred target of cybercriminals, and these organizations have a lot to lose. In fact, 60% of them fail within six months of a cyberattack.
To avoid becoming a victim, it’s critical to prevent phishing attacks.
Your small business is growing fast. That’s good news! But rapid growth also presents new challenges. Perhaps most importantly, as sales and website traffic increase, you become a more attractive target for cybercriminals.
At SiteLock, we developed a proprietary risk score based on over 500 variables to help website owners gauge the overall risk of their sites on a scale from low to high. Each of the variables can be grouped into three main categories: a site’s complexity, its popularity, and its composition. In general, the more variables a site has, the higher the risk level. Those websites deemed high risk are 26 times more likely to experience a breach.
Modern cybercriminals have an array of weapons in their cyber arsenals. As technology evolves, their tools and methods continue to become more sophisticated. Ransomware is among these weapons — and it poses a significant threat. Cybersecurity Ventures estimates that a ransomware attack targets a business every 14 seconds, and that number will fall to 11 seconds by 2021. Because no business is too small to become the target of a ransomware attack, it’s important to understand how to proactively defend your organization.
The ugly news about Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election forced the issue of cybersecurity into the political spotlight in 2016. Since this catalytic event, political leaders have grappled with cybersecurity awareness on a global stage — and not all have done so gracefully.
Bad actors, whether politically motivated or not, grow increasingly sophisticated as our world becomes more rooted in technology. However, it appears lawmakers aren’t prepared for this reality. One example: too many are in the dark about website encryption — 61% of world politicians’ websites aren’t HTTPS-secured.
In a matter of minutes, a distributed denial-of-service — or DDoS — attack can bring your website traffic to a grinding halt.
In the past, these attacks were more of an annoyance than a serious threat, but this has changed. DDoS attacks are growing in both size and frequency. Major attacks saw a 967% increase between the first quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of 2019. Recovering from an attack like this could cost a small business hundreds of thousands of dollars.
