Over the past decade over the past decade, millions of businesses and organizations have accepted the Web as a cost-effective method to communicate with customers as well as conduct business. This includes web applications that store and collect information. This includes customer information that is submitted via content management systems, online shopping carts, inquiry forms or login fields.
Because these applications are connected to the Internet and often accessed from anywhere in the world they are vulnerable to hacking attempts that exploit vulnerabilities in the application or its infrastructure. SQL injection attacks that exploit weaknesses in databases, could compromise databases that contain sensitive data. Attackers can use the foothold they gain by breaching your Web application to locate other, more vulnerable systems within your network.
Cross Site Scripting (XSS) is another common Web attack type. This exploits weaknesses in web servers to inject malicious code in web pages. The script is then executed in the victim’s web browser. This allows attackers steal confidential information or redirect users to websites that offer phishing. XSS attacks are prevalent on message boards, blogs and web forums.
Hackers collaborate to overwhelm a website by sending more requests than the website can handle. This can cause a website’s performance to suffer or even shut down completely. This affects the ability to process requests, and makes it unusable to everyone. DDoS attacks can be devastating for small-scale businesses, such as local bakeries or restaurants that depend on their websites for operation.