Over the past decade, millions of businesses have embraced web applications as an inexpensive way to build relationships and transactions with prospects and customers. But while they provide the opportunity for greater customer insight and efficiency, web applications also have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cybercriminals. One of the most common and devastating of these is a web attack.
A web attack is a type of a cyberattack in which an attacker impersonates another to gain access to sensitive information or perform malicious actions, like taking credit card numbers or other personal information. Common types of web-based attacks include Structured Query Language injection (SQLi) and cross-site scripting (XSS), and file upload attacks.
In SQLi, hackers enter custom Structured Query Language (SQL) commands into the field on a website or in a web-based app to access private information stored on the backend database server. Similar to an XSS attack, hackers insert malicious code into the web application or website that the victim’s browser executes automatically without verification or encoding. The attack can hijack the user’s session, display non-authorized images or texts, or redirect them to a phishing site.
The best method to safeguard against an attack on your website is to run regular vulnerability scans and apply patches to your website as well as its web servers and any other databases that are underlying. It is also a great idea to develop an incident response plan to ensure that an attack can be identified quickly and dealt with. Also, ensure that you are aware of ways to spot an attack on your website through warning indications such as slowing down of the network or intermittent shutdowns of websites.