What Is Web Attack and How Does It Affect Your Business?
In the last decade, millions of people have accessed the Web to communicate and conduct business with their customers. This includes the use of web applications that store and collect data including customer information provided via content management systems, shopping carts inquiry or submit forms, and login fields.
Since these applications are online-based and can be accessed from anywhere in the world they are susceptible to attacks that exploit weaknesses in the application or its infrastructure. SQL injection attacks, which exploit weaknesses in databases, can compromise databases that hold sensitive data. Attackers also can leverage an advantage gained by breaching the security of a Web application to detect and gain access to other, more vulnerable systems on your network.
Other typical Web attack types include Cross Site Scripting attacks (XSS) that exploit weaknesses in the web server to inject malicious code into web pages, and which executes as an infected script in the victim’s browser. This lets attackers obtain confidential information or to redirect the user to phishing websites. Web forums, message boards, and blogs are particularly vulnerable to XSS attacks.
Hackers work together to overwhelm websites by sending more requests than the website can handle. This can cause a website’s performance to suffer or even shut down completely. This interferes with the ability of the website to process requests, making it unusable to everyone. This is the reason DDoS attacks are especially devastating for small businesses that depend on their websites for the operation like local restaurants or bakeries.
