Security Concerns Grow for Online Merchants as Fraud and Cyber Threats Increase
Hikvision Two-Part Blog Series on Pharming—A Malicious Hacking Attack—Provides Insights to Address Security Concerns
The Security magazine story, “Heightened fraud and cyber risks threaten e-commerce merchants,” outlines heightened security concerns facing online merchants as consumers shift to online shopping, and exacerbated by COVID-19 stay-at-home directives.
From the article: “The situation [for online merchants] is tenuous. A recent study from Forter shows fraud attacks increased by 19 percent, globally, from 2018 to 2019 across the online-retail landscape, ranging from return abuse and shipping fraud to account takeovers, identity manipulation and other emerging threats. Observers expect that figure to increase in 2020 based on the last few months alone. Banks and retailers have already reported increases in phishing attacks, and the perception that fraud-prevention teams are not working at full capacity due to the pandemic, makes these organizations particularly vulnerable.”
The story covers several trends related to heightened cyber threats and related security concerns. These include:
- The impact of phishing email scams is creating more victims. The Security magazine article noted that “Barracuda Networks, a security vendor, recently revealed phishing emails spiked 600 percent during a four-week period between the end of February and the last week of March [2020].” Read this Hikvision blog that outlines “Examples of Phishing” to help you identify this scam and avoid being victimized.
- With stay-at-home order in affect, more people are watching television. Home entertainment and streaming options are seeing an uptick in payment-related fraud. Read this Hikvision article on ways to stay safe while working from home.
- Cyber criminals are buying website domain names that get people’s attention, related to items such as face masks and hand sanitizers, then “creating fake websites to sell products that don’t exist,” according to the article.
For more cybersecurity insights to help you reduce security concerns, read Hikvision’s two-part blog series below: