Shopping and E-Commerce Sites
Shopping and E-Commerce sites are digital platforms for buying and selling goods, services, and digital assets, encompassing significant consumer marketplaces and gig-economy services. In the context of cybersecurity, they represent an extremely high-value target because they directly handle credit card and payment information, PII, and financial transactions. The significant risks include payment fraud, Magecart-style attacks, supply chain compromise (via third-party sellers/gigs), and massive data breaches that expose millions of customer records.
Marketplaces
These platforms connect sellers and buyers for physical goods, digital assets, and stock media, facilitating transactions between multiple parties.
Cybersecurity Context:
Magecart and Web Skimming: Major e-commerce sites like Amazon and eBay, as well as smaller specialized marketplaces like Etsy and Depop.com, are vulnerable to web skimming (Magecart) attacks. Attackers inject malicious JavaScript into the checkout page to steal payment card data as the customer enters it.
Account Takeover (ATO) and Financial Fraud: High-value accounts on marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Mercado Libre) are often compromised to steal financial information, run fraudulent sales, or launder money. The use of shared seller platforms like Livemaster or 123rf can introduce third-party risk.
Malware Distribution: Platforms that sell digital assets or stock media (Envato, Gumroad, 123rf) can be abused by malicious sellers who disguise malware within downloadable files (e.g., a "free template" from MuffinGroup or a design asset from kwork).
Examples: A customer purchasing an item on eBay is redirected to a malicious payment processor page after clicking "checkout," leading to credit card compromise. A third-party seller's application on Amazon is compromised, allowing an attacker to scrape customer information from the seller's account.
Gigs & Crowdfunding Sites
These platforms facilitate service exchanges between freelancers and clients or enable individuals to raise funds for projects or creators.
Cybersecurity Context:
Supply Chain and Insider Threat: Freelance platforms like Upwork.com, Fiverr, Guru, and Freelancer.com introduce a significant supply chain risk. Malicious freelancers may be hired to work on a company's sensitive code or systems, and they can intentionally inject backdoors or steal intellectual property.
Phishing and Escrow Fraud: Attackers create fake "job listings" or "crowdfunding campaigns" on sites like Kickstarter, Gofundme, or BuyMeACoffee to trick users into providing personal or financial information, often under the guise of verification or payment.
Data Leakage and PII: These sites handle contractor PII, payment rates, and sensitive project documents. A breach of a platform like Freelance.habr or Truelancer can expose a company's internal project details and contractor financial data.
Examples: A company hires a freelancer through Upwork.com for a small coding task; the freelancer inserts malicious code into the final deliverable, giving them a backdoor into the company's system. A fake creator campaign on Patreon or kofi is used to collect credit card details for a recurring "donation" that is actually a fraudulent charge.
ThreatNG is an exceptionally valuable solution for managing the high-volume, high-value risks emanating from Shopping and E-Commerce sites by continuously monitoring for external indicators of financial fraud, supply chain compromise, and the leakage of customer and employee data.
External Discovery and Continuous Monitoring
ThreatNG’s External Discovery capabilities automatically map an organization's digital footprint across consumer, freelance, and funding platforms. Continuous Monitoring ensures threats are identified the moment they are exposed.
Dark Web Presence: This is the most crucial component for e-commerce. ThreatNG constantly monitors the Dark Web and high-risk forums for mentions of organizations and associated Compromised Credentials. If a threat actor discusses a vulnerability in a third-party seller platform used by Amazon, or if credentials from a breach of Etsy or a gig platform like Fiverr are dumped, ThreatNG detects the compromised credentials (linked to a corporate email address).
Code and GitHub Code: This is highly relevant for gig and developer sites. ThreatNG actively monitors code repositories for accidental exposure of secrets. ThreatNG flags the Code Secret Exposure, preventing infrastructure compromise.
Archived Web Pages: ThreatNG searches archived content across the web for files that may have been posted on these sites. Suppose an employee or contractor posts a document containing financial forecasts or customer data to a temporary service linked to Gumroad or BuyMeACoffee before deleting it. In that case, ThreatNG can discover the archived copy of the Document File or text file, triggering a critical data leak alert.
External Assessment for E-Commerce and Gig Risks
ThreatNG's External Assessment scores quantify the risks specific to financial and supply chain compromise inherent to shopping sites.
BEC & Phishing Susceptibility: This score is impacted by impersonation and fraud campaigns targeting customers.
Example 1 (Brand Impersonation): ThreatNG detects the creation of fraudulent vendor profiles on major marketplaces like Amazon or eBay that impersonate the organization's brand. It flags these instances of Brand Impersonation where the profile is used to sell fake goods or redirect buyers to a malicious external site.
Example 2 (Malicious Links): The assessment constantly scans user-generated content on gig platforms for links to Malicious Content. If a malicious freelancer posts a link to a "portfolio" on Freelancer.com that leads to a credential harvesting site, ThreatNG highlights this phishing vector.
Data Leak Susceptibility: This score is severely impacted by the discovery of compromised credentials. The finding of Associated Compromised Credentials from breaches of platforms like mercadolivre or kofi that match employee corporate emails immediately elevates this score, indicating a high probability of credential re-use leading to system compromise.
Web Application Hijack Susceptibility: This assessment checks for third-party vulnerabilities on a website. ThreatNG can detect whether an organization's e-commerce page is using a vulnerable third-party library or script that could be exploited in a Magecart attack, in which malicious JavaScript is injected to steal customer credit card data during checkout.
Investigation Modules and Username Exposure
The Investigation Modules are key to linking fraudulent contractor activity and employee credential re-use back to corporate risk.
Social Media Investigation Module - Username Exposure
This module is essential for mitigating the risks of social engineering and identity theft targeting employees and executives active on gig and professional platforms.
Passive Reconnaissance: The module performs broad checks for usernames and handles of key personnel across thousands of sites, including professional and gig platforms. It identifies usernames on sites like Upwork.com, Fiverr, ProductHunt, and Guru.
Example: ThreatNG discovers that an organization’s procurement manager is using their corporate-derived username on Upwork.com. A subsequent intelligence feed confirms this username was included in a large data breach from a similar gig platform. The Username Exposure module correlates this credential re-use and site presence, prompting the security team to enforce a substantial password change and MFA for the manager’s sensitive internal accounts, preventing an attacker from using the stolen password to access purchasing systems.
Intelligence Repositories and Reporting
ThreatNG's Intelligence Repositories provide the immediate context needed to prioritize supply chain and financial fraud risks.
DarCache Dark Web and DarCache Rupture (Compromised Credentials): This tracks breaches of gig and marketplace sites. When credentials from a platform like eBay or Freelancer.com are dumped, DarCache Rupture filters the data to flag all employee corporate email addresses found, classifying them as Associated Compromised Credentials and triggering an instant alert due to the imminent risk of account takeover.
DarCache Vulnerability (KEV, EPSS, PoC Exploit): This tracks software vulnerabilities. If a vulnerability is discovered in a popular e-commerce plugin used by WordPress or Shopify that is being actively exploited in the wild (KEV), ThreatNG flags the affected organizational assets as exposed to a Known Exploited Vulnerability (KEV), ensuring a critical patch is applied before a Magecart attack occurs.
Reporting compiles all these findings—from a hardcoded credential in a gig worker's portfolio to an external Magecart vulnerability—into Prioritized reports. The MITRE ATT&CK Mapping correlates the finding (e.g., credential theft from Fiverr) with adversary tactics such as "Initial Access" or "Supply Chain Compromise."
ThreatNG with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG's external intelligence from E-Commerce and Gig sites can be seamlessly integrated into complementary security solutions.
Integration with a Web Application Firewall (WAF) Complementary Solution: ThreatNG's Web Application Hijack Susceptibility module detects a high-risk external vulnerability that makes the organization’s checkout page vulnerable to a Magecart attack. ThreatNG shares the specific script pattern and malicious domain used in this attack with a WAF complementary solution. The WAF can then immediately deploy a custom rule to block all requests containing that malicious script or traffic directed to the identified skimming domains, providing instant defense against payment card theft.
Integration with a Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Complementary Solution: ThreatNG's Code Secret Exposure module finds that a vendor used via Upwork.com has exposed their company's internal server credentials in a public repository. ThreatNG sends the vendor's profile details and the type of leak to a TPRM complementary solution. The TPRM solution can then automatically flag this vendor as High-Risk, initiate a formal review of their contract and security posture, and alert the procurement team to suspend further work, neutralizing the supply chain threat.
