PHP and MySQL Web Development 4th Ed-tqw-_darksiderg

Understanding Risks and Threats
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Crackers
The best-publicized threat to e-commerce comes from malicious computer users known
as crackers. All businesses run the risk of becoming targets of criminals, but high-profile
e-commerce businesses are bound to attract the attention of crackers with varying intentions
and abilities.
Crackers might attack for the challenge, for notoriety, to sabotage your site, to steal
money, or to gain free goods or services.
Securing your site involves a combination of
n Keeping backups of important information
n Having hiring policies that attract honest staff and keep them loyal because the
most dangerous attacks can come from within
n Taking software-based precautions, such as choosing secure software and keeping it
up to date
n Training staff to identify targets and weaknesses
n Auditing and logging to detect break-ins or attempted break-ins
Most successful attacks on computer systems take advantage of well-known weaknesses
such as easily guessed passwords, common misconfigurations, and old versions of software.
A few commonsense precautions can turn away nonexpert attacks and ensure that
you have a backup if the worst happens.
Failure to Attract Sufficient Business
Although attacks by crackers are widely feared, most e-commerce failures relate to traditional
economic factors.The effort of building and marketing a major e-commerce site
costs a lot of money. Companies often are willing to lose money in the short term, however,
based on assumptions that after the brand is established in the market place, customer
numbers and revenue will increase.
The dot-com crash brought many companies crashing down as venture capital needed
to support loss-making retailers dried up.The string of high-profile failures included
European boo.com, which ran out of money and changed hands after burning $120 million
in six months.The problem was not that Boo did not make sales; it was just that the
company spent far, far more than it made.
Computer Hardware Failure
If your business relies on a website, obviously, the failure of a critical part of one of your
computers will have an impact.