German online trade: DDoS attacks cause ongoing problems

For weeks now, German online commerce has been under attack by two hackers. Again and again DDoS waves (Distributed Denial of Service) hit German online shops and service providers. The target of the DDoS attacks?

The IT systems or servers are bombarded with a huge number of requests, so that the service is subsequently suspended - the Internet pages and services offered can then no longer be accessed. "One must condemn such attacks. Just because a few nutcases want to show what is actually technically possible, the entire industry suffers. I hope that the relevant state criminal investigation offices will soon have a lead and catch the criminals, so that it becomes clear to the entire scene that this is a real crime," says Oliver Prothmann, the President of the Federal Association of Online Commerce. (BVOH).

German online trade underestimates dangers

According to the BVOH, the danger should not be underestimated under any circumstances. After all, online shops are the business basis for online retailers - if DDoS attacks or other hacker attacks ensure that the shop is offline, the business basis is also threatened. But it is not only the shops that are at risk - many online trading systems are online applications. If the online systems of the shop providers - i.e. marketplaces, traffic suppliers or even shipping service providers - are attacked and subsequently rendered incapable, the entire online trade will not function. The attacks cause the shop or even the systems to fail, so that customer support can no longer be offered. In addition, there are increased recalls, the data has to be updated again and the systems have to be rebuilt. Such processes cost money and burden the service provider. Unfortunately, many shop providers are still not concerned with security, so that they do not enjoy proper protection against possible attacks.

Small measures provide the necessary protection

But there are also protective measures to prevent possible DDoS attacks. "Link11", a German protection provider, advises companies to check their systems. For example, the online retailer has to make sure that DDoS protection is maintained, that DDoS protection secures the subdomains and the domain name, and also ensures that internal networks are protected against possible attacks. Furthermore, the IP address of the server should not be directly accessible from the Internet. These are minor measures, but they ensure that the online shop remains protected. But not only large companies should check their security measures. Finally, according to wortfilter.de, an industry service, smaller companies are also attacked. These included billiger.de, Rakuten, Redcoon, hood.de, DHL or even Hermes. Many companies reacted to the attacks and have now installed corresponding programs, so that the sites are now protected.

BVOH wants to present new solutions


Online trade has been shown that attacks are always possible and can become a problem. Now that the postal strike in June 2015 has made it clear how risky shipping really is, the current DDoS attacks show the risk involved when services are offered online. For this reason, BVOH is calling on retailers and service providers to take a closer look at various programs (security). On August 31, 2017, the day of online trading, the BVOH will also be looking more closely at cyber security and presenting solutions.