Catastrophic Impacts of Session Hijacking A Company may Experience

Adding cookies to your business website might be fundamental to generating a profit and driving more sales. Simply put, using website cookies can benefit business websites. Web browsers generate these small data files. The web browser stores them for users' sessions on any website.

Cookies are a great way for websites to maintain visitors' browsing history. It increases the convenience of revisiting that website. In short, website cookies are beneficial for the company and its marketing team.

But with cybercrime becoming the most threatening issue, cookies cast a catastrophic impact. Hence, cookie hijacking becomes a pivotal issue for companies having a digital presence. Here's how dangerous session hijacking is.

Cookie Hijacking – What Makes It So Dangerous?

Cookie stealing or hijacking is a method any malicious actors use to access and steal the private information of loyal or prospective customers. Fraudsters use them and prevent the business from accessing the accounts. 

Also referred to as session hijacking, hackers can gain access to personal resources. It occurs when malware programs wait for customers to log into websites. It steals session cookies before sending them to the fraudsters.

Key Intentions of Cookie Stealing: What Do Malicious Actors Want?

Malicious actors use cookie-stealing approaches for a few purposes. There are several ways how cybercrime intruders use these traps. Elucidated below are the prime objectives of session hijacking.

Customers Get Redirected to Other Websites Automatically

Customers may get redirected to various product pages. It might be another product page or something else. So with cookie stealing, hackers mainly intend to automatically redirect customers from one website to another.

Getting Different Results when Searching for Something Else

Session cookie hijacking may mismatch a user's query. For instance, the purchase seeks bags but gets results for jewelry or clothing. That might hamper the brand reputation of the company. Besides, it contributes to the loss of valued clientele. Threat actors create affiliate traps by employing different methods to disrupt purchasers' flow. They modify the cookie with affiliate cookies and gain false commissions.

Cookie Scraping

Cookies comprise the personal information of customers. And they include credit card and login details. Hackers earn money by stealing information.

Stolen Cookies for Identity Theft

Information gets saved in cookies when one fills in details on different digital platforms. Malicious actors steal them for identity theft. For example, they can apply for loans under their name. They may also use credit cards for any purchase.

Target Phishing Attacks

Nefarious actors use sensitive information. They aim to target phishing attacks. After procuring customers' private details, threat actors extort them. They simply ask for money to protect the information. 

Reduction in Brand Revenue 

With session hijacking, threat actors can eat into the profit margins of your advertising team to gain commissions. Essential metrics like ROI and impression share are also affected. Accurate revenue attribution becomes impossible with session hijacking.

Targets for the Company's Reputational Damage 

Malicious actors can cause reputational damage to a company. It causes financial harm to the marketing teams. No doubt, cookies comprise confidential data. And after gaining access, nefarious actors can ask for money. Besides, they may get access to organizational networks to inject malware and spy on them.

Repercussions of Steal Hijacking: What Are The Consequences a Brand May Experience?

Explained below are the three consequences of cookie or session hijacking:

1 Business Reputation

Malicious actors may hamper brand reputation. They ruin customer experience by redirecting them to inject cookies into the system at different times. The adware can have a negative impact on the user's system & affects their browsing experience. So, it hampers a brand's reputation that it took years to earn. What it does is disregards the customer's trust.

2 Dissatisfying Customer Experience

Malicious attackers regulate the customers' cookies and sessions remotely. Soon after session hijacking, threat actors can perform each action like the authorized user. It leads to poor user experience. And once customers recognize malicious activities, the brand may lose its loyal clients.

3 Advertiser Revenue

Cookie stealing is a prime method used by fraudsters to steal commissions. These affiliates seek commissions and impact the advertiser's marketing budget.

Safeguard Your Company and Clients from Cookie Hijacking

Monitoring session hijacking might be immensely challenging for companies. That's where VPT comes into the forefront. Virus Positive Technologies is a pioneer in offering session hijacking prevention and monitoring solutions.

With undisruptive methodologies, the proficient team identifies non-compliant behaviors. VPT's digitized services can protect a company's brand reputation and offer your customer a safe and secure experience.

Consult the proficient team of Virus Positive Technologies to gain an in-depth insight into their monitoring services. The team will offer the right protection solutions to maintain your brand reputation and gain lost revenues. Book an appointment with the proficient experts at VPT and learn more about the services. Seek session hijacking prevention solutions from the VPT professionals.