How to Protect Your Ecommerce Business from Social Engineering

If you run an Ecommerce business, chances are you’ve experienced the impact of social engineering already — Learn how to protect your store here.

The rise of e-commerce has made it easier than ever for businesses to reach a global audience of customers, which comes with a plethora of benefits over traditional retail. However, it has also given rise to an increase in fraudulent practices such as social engineering.

Put simply, social engineering involves manipulating an individual for financial gain or access to personal data. It can also go as far as being the first step in a more elaborate cyber-attack. Due to the human aspect of this type of fraud, anti-malware and other security measures often prove ineffective, which leaves it up to you to identify and prevent it.

A recent study conducted by Symantec Security Response found that an alarming 97% of all cyber-attacks were the result of social engineering.

This makes sense – why go through the effort of using sophisticated software and hacking techniques when you could simply walk right in?

But fear not, as there are a variety of ways that you can protect your e-commerce business from cyber-attacks. Read on to learn more.

Learn About Phishing Emails

Phishing is one of the most common types of social engineering frauds committed against businesses. The aim of a phishing email is to trick an employee into clicking a link that deploys malware or obtains personal data. This one simple mistake can prove catastrophic to your e-commerce business.

There are a variety of ways for you to prevent this from happening, including educating your employees, using email authentication technology and a variety of other methods, as further explained in this post on how to stop phishing emails. You can learn more about how to stop phishing emails here to protect your e-commerce store.

Prevent Physical Access

Social engineering doesn’t only happen in the digital world – your physical drives and routers can also be compromised by someone from outside your business, or even an employee for that matter. If you have an office or physical premises, be sure to place your storage drives, servers and routers in a secure location.

Stop Returns Fraud

If your e-commerce store has been around for some time, the following situation may sound familiar: A customer buys a product from you and a few days later, you’re hit with a chargeback – despite the fact that your product successfully arrived at the customer’s doorstep.

Unfortunately, payment processors such as PayPal often side with the buyer, especially if you cannot provide concrete evidence that you didn’t do anything wrong. To prevent this, ensure that you’re able to provide all the necessary tracking and shipment details to prove that the customer did indeed receive what they purchased.

Be Aware of Common Techniques

Educating yourself and employees on common social engineering methods will go a long way in helping you prevent malicious action from being taken on your e-commerce store. Methods such as file link scams, court notices, tax scams and more are discussed in detail here.

Preventing social engineering fraud from happening to your e-commerce business mainly comes down to knowing what to look out for. Keep the above points in mind and be sure to educate your employees on it, too.