In the last decade over the past neoerudition.net/avg-secrets-and-features decade, millions of businesses and organizations have accepted the Web as a cost-effective way to communicate with customers as well as conduct business. This includes web-based applications that store and collect information. This includes customer information that is submitted via content management systems such as online shopping carts, inquiry forms, or login fields.

Since these applications are online-based and often accessed from anywhere in the world they are susceptible to attacks on security that exploit weaknesses in the application’s infrastructure. For example, SQL injection attacks (which exploit weaknesses in the database) can result in compromised databases that contain sensitive information. Attackers can also leverage an advantage gained by breaching a Web application to discover and access other, more vulnerable systems on your network.

Cross Site Scripting (XSS) is another popular Web attack type. This exploits the weaknesses of web servers to inject malicious code in web pages. The script then runs in the victim’s web browser. This enables attackers to obtain confidential information or to redirect users to websites that are phishing. XSS attacks are most common on message boards, blogs and web forums.

Distributed attacks on service (DDoS) involve hackers joining together to overwhelm a website with more requests than it can handle. This can cause the site to slow down or completely shut down, which interferes with the ability of the site to process requests and make it unusable for everyone. This is why DDoS attacks are particularly devastating for small businesses that depend on their websites to run in local establishments, like restaurants or bakeries.