eCommerce faces cybercrime losses of GBP £2.02m per hour

Cequence Security has announced the findings of its latest research, revealing that global eCommerce businesses could face potential losses of GBP £2.02 million per hour due to cybercrime during the December holiday shopping period.

The CQ Prime threat research team of Cequence conducted the study, monitoring more than 8 billion API connections daily. The research underscores the growing cyber threats targeting the global retail sector, particularly focussing on the impact of malicious bot traffic and fraud attempts.

The report draws on real transaction data processed through Cequence's Unified API Protection platform, highlighting how cybercriminals exploit periods of peak shopping activity, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Total e-commerce transactions reportedly doubled from 5.1 billion in 2023 to 10.4 billion in 2024, with a notable 34.62% identified as malicious, marking a significant increase from the previous year.

Financial impacts during a short span from November 22 to December 2, 2024, are projected to have resulted in GBP £533.67 million in losses. This trend suggests hourly losses could average GBP £2.02 million throughout December, potentially totalling GBP £1.4 billion by the end of the month.

Advanced attack techniques, including credential stuffing, SMS pumping, and token farming, have surged by 700% year-over-year, according to the research. Specific instances include a significant e-commerce mitigation of an SMS pumping attack that originally had inflicted GBP £2,350 losses every four hours, successfully preventing further fraudulent account activities.

Additionally, Cequence identified a 125% surge in malicious traffic during Black Friday, effectively blocking 11.5 million attacks while ensuring uninterrupted customer experiences. There has been a documented 72.6% increase in the mitigation of these attacks from 2023 to 2024, emphasizing the necessity for proactive cyber defence strategies.

Randolph Barr, Chief Information Security Officer at Cequence, commented on the findings: "Cybercriminals are seizing on the rapid growth of digital commerce, using increasingly sophisticated tactics to target both businesses and consumers. This year's findings are part of a broader trend: as eCommerce continues to evolve, so too does the scale and complexity of cyber threats. These findings highlight the critical need for businesses to adopt robust API and bot management solutions to protect revenue, maintain customer trust, and stay competitive in an increasingly digital world."

In response to the report's findings, Cequence advises companies to enhance their incident readiness, map their attack surface, align security with business objectives, deploy multi-layered security systems, monitor anomalous behaviour, strengthen access controls, invest in real-time threat management, and optimise preparations for high-traffic events.