As the holiday season approaches, many eCommerce businesses are starting to realize the importance for IT security. Practical Ecommerce said some websites may be especially vulnerable to distributed denial of service, or DDoS attacks, which happen when computers overload a website. This causes a website to slow down or crash.
To underscore the importance of protecting customers on an eCommerce website, comScore predicts this November and December will see online sales of $37.6 billion combined.
Practical Ecommerce said online stores that lose the ability to sell because of a DDoS attack will most definitely see a difference in how much they sell over the season, as people will buy elsewhere if a website is unavailable.
The website said the attacks are mostly aimed at larger brands, but have seen an overall rise in the past year or so and said any eCommerce website would be wise in assessing the risk. Data security and PCI compliance may help strengthen the website security to prevent or quell these attacks.