E-Commerce websites are a prime target for hackers because of the monetary potential that they have. However, it seems like a typical data breach isn't even perpetuated by actual humans over half the time.
VentureBeat reports that around 57% of all cyberattacks targeting e-commerce sites are done by bots. The other 33% comprises all other industries.
The data comes from the research firm Imperva Research Labs, who also revealed that the prevalence of an e-commerce data breaches has risen 13% since last year.
Much of these cyberattack cases are performed by so-called "sophisticated bad bots." As per the original Imperva report, these bots are defined for their abilities to generate mouse clicks and movements that closely resemble human ones.
As such, this kind of bot is what hackers use to launch a cyberattack on unsuspecting e-commerce sites, all because they're the hardest ones to stop.
With this kind of bot, hackers can evade several defenses and commit fraud or deny inventory to people. In the end, consumers really can't get what they want to buy because it's almost always out of stock--or the entire e-commerce site itself is down for the count.
With the holiday season on the horizon, it now falls to these e-commerce sites to think of ways to protect their systems and inventory against bot attacks. This is why 81% of online retailers are tapping into solutions such as artificial intelligence to protect their bottom line.
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Automated Traffic Is More Common Than People Think
Success in e-commerce relies a lot on organic traffic. However, not a lot of people know that automated traffic consists roughly 39% of all internet traffic, writes Info Security Magazine.
North America is among the regions which exhibited the most bad bot traffic in recent memory at 67% of all known traffic. Europe and Asia follow suit.
Europe, however, seems to be an outlier--bad bots tend to come from specific hosting services or even residential IPs.
How These Bots Work
The challenge with using bots for attacking e-commerce sites involves making them convincing enough to evade detection.
Hackers use different techniques to achieve this objective. Most of the time, they're going to mix the automated traffic into normal workday traffic, with a lot of online entities being none the wiser.
But sometimes, they'll up their game. Some hackers have figured out how to make bots convincing by giving them the credentials of real people--names, addresses, everything. They often get this information either by outright stealing them, or buying them from dark web dealers, writes Security Intelligence.
Once complete, the bots can then be used for almost any type of hacking operation--from malware to phishing attacks, and even compromising business emails.
E-Commerce Sites Must Stay Vigilant
Bots are a given fact of life on the digital space. For now, owners of ecommerce sites must be extra vigilant if they want to make sure that their products reach the hands of actual customers--not scalpers looking to make a quick buck.
Related: E-commerce Frauds Are Haunting Online Retailers: Types and Solutions You Should Know
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Written by RJ Pierce
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