Do you sell on the Internet? Beware of the dangers of Formjacking that could compromise the personal data you store about your customers and jeopardize the security and reputation of your online store. Learn more about this new cybersecurity threat in this post.
What is Formjacking
When we talk about Formjacking we are referring to a new threat to cybersecurity that specifically targets e-commerce and that compromises the personal and bank details of online store customers, as well as the reputation and computer security systems of millions of SMEs.
What is Formjacking? According to experts, this new cybersecurity threat is based on the skimming method at ATMs. A fraud based on the cloning of credit cards, in order to make purchases and charges on behalf of another person.
Simply put, Formjacking steals personal data that is stored in online store forms and databases and uses it to make unauthorized purchases on behalf of the owners of the cloned cards. In the worst-case scenario, cybercriminals sell this data on the black market to carry out massive fraud.
What is the impact of Formjackin? In recent months, several security notices have been launched to alert you to the dangers of this new form of cybercrime. In this sense, the security company Symantec has recognized that in the last quarter of 2018 it blocked almost 4 million Formjacking attacks worldwide, coinciding with the Christmas campaign and events such as Black Friday.
The incidence of Formjacking and its rise in recent months is directly related to the growth of Internet purchases.
How Formjacking works
To access the bank details of customers of an online store, cybercriminals infect the payment platforms of web sites with malware and, once this happens, they can take control of the personal data that their customers enter.
In this way, Formjacking has similarities to Phishing, although you do not have to create a false website or URL to obtain the personal data of customers. They take advantage of a page vulnerability and, once they have taken control, they access the forms with the data of the buyers without the need to clone or duplicate the web.
Do you think that Formjacking only affects small online stores? Not much less. Large companies such as British Airways or Ticketmaster have been victims of this type of computer attack and have suffered significant economic losses, in addition to a significant loss of online reputation.
In summary, an attack of this nature works in this way:
- Cybercriminals introduce malicious JavasScript code into online payment forms, the function of which is to steal all the credit card information from buyers.
- The client of that website enters the purchase data in the infected form.
- When the buyer formalizes the purchase through the send button, all the information about the purchase reaches the seller, but the attacker also receives a copy of it.
- Once cybercriminals have customer data, they can make purchases on your behalf or sell databases using forms on the black market ( Dark Web ).
How to protect yourself from Formjacking
What security measures should be implemented to prevent a Formjacking attack in your online store? The answer to this question is to always keep all the security processes of our website updated, as well as putting special interest in payment gateways and forms that record customer data. In this sense, there are specific tools for eCommerce that must always be taken into account.
To this must be added the need to maintain permanent backup copies of our customer databases and have adequate training to prevent actions that may compromise the computer security of our company’s website.
From the clients’ point of view, any online transaction that is carried out must have basic computer security precautions and never enter the data and passwords of our credit card directly.
In the case of Formjacking, it must be taken into account that it is activated through JavaScript, so it is advisable not to authorize its loading when making an online payment, discarding its activation in our browser by default.
In the same way, it is convenient to have all our security filters and patches conveniently updated to, in this way, avoid any type of attack on our device.
