Hacker Trouble – You may be at risk too!

Everything good comes with a flip side, whether we like it or not. The internet is no exception to this. Since inception and its subsequent expansion to become a part of our daily lives, various forms of hacking and hackers have tried to create problems in the otherwise smooth functioning of the internet. Even the most sensitive sectors like banking have not been spared from the prying eyes of hackers, hitting any of us anytime when least expected.

Many of us may have expected this; its come now, maybe sooner than expected. India’s sky-rocketing e-commerce industry is the latest target of large scale Internet attacks. A recent Akamai report indicates that the Indian e-commerce industry is the second biggest target for DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) from hackers, second to enterprises.

“We have observed a huge spike in attacks against ecommerce companies in India. The purpose of many of these attacks is to extort money from e-commerce companies as a ransom to stop the attacks,” said Sidharth Pisharoti, country sales head, Akamai.

What is DDoS?

Forged requests are sent to a very large number of Internet connected devices that reply to the requests with IP address spoofing. The ‘source’ address is set to the IP address of the actual target of the attack, where all the replies are sent. These attacks are easy to execute as attack tools are readily available.

How big is the risk in India now?

 As per the Akamai State of the Internet Report, attack traffic in the first quarter increased to 2.6% in India, making the seventh most targeted country with attack traffic.

However, there has been no report of extortion fees paid yet in India. Jabong accepted and acknowledged attack incidents adding that it did not impact their business.

“The identified sources of attacks have been both foreign and Indian servers. Our teams have always been receptive to mitigate any such spells,” said Praveen Sinha, co founder and MD jabong.com.

Risk for an Indian Online Seller with Internet attacks

Such attacks pose significant threats for any potential target. As a seller operating through marketplace platforms, you may be at risk too if the marketplace has been targeted. Previous trends indicate hacker activity when something gains popularity.

If you notice any unusual activity, ensure it is brought to the notice of the marketplace provider to protect from hacker activity. If you have an independent store, take precautionary measures to protect from attacks and downfalL.