WATCH OUT | Cyber attacks target holiday season online shoppers, IPC warns

02 Dec WATCH OUT | Cyber attacks target holiday season online shoppers, IPC warns

Cyber shoppers should be extra careful this holiday season as cyber criminals are bound to capitalize on the growth in traffic, local security provider IPC said.

“With so many people turning to online shopping to avoid the holiday rush, cyber criminals will want to take advantage of the increased traffic,” said Niño Valmonte, IPC director for development marketing. “Perpetrators will use this as an opportunity to bring down websites, commit data theft and fraud, and other forms of cyber attacks. Thus, it is imperative for enterprises to safeguard their digital presence.”

Preventing DDoS (or Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, which is IPC’s specialty, should be an area of concern especially for ecommerce companies according to the company. DDoS attacks occur when a website or online service is brought down by cyber criminals by overwhelming it with traffic.

“Over 50 percent of cybercrimes in the world are DDoS attacks. As this continues to become more common, criminals are now starting to use this as a diversionary tactic to do worse things. Attackers now use DDoS as a chance to hit other parts of your system, such as confidential data on your business and customers. An attack can also act as a window of opportunity for them to tamper with your apps and install viruses and malware,” Valmonte said.

Source: InterAksyon