Romanian Cyber Security Journal / Spring 2025, No. 1, Vol. 7

Securing the Digital Marketplace: Analyzing Ransomware’s Impact on E-Commerce Platforms

Cristian-Ștefan BUCĂTARU, Emil SIMION

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Abstract

One of the most serious cyber threats to e-commerce today is ransomware. E-commerce relies almost entirely on digital transactions and is increasingly dependent on all kinds of sensitive customer information. This situation makes any kind of information breach potentially disastrous. Over the last several years, ransomware itself has evolved, and the common perception of it has changed. Whereas people once thought of ransomware as a crudely executed virtual hostage-taking situation - essentially, “pay us for your data or we’ll destroy it” - ransomware is now understood as a fairly sophisticated operation that may not even be managed by the hackers who carry it out. Indeed, many ransomware attacks are executed not by lone individuals but by criminal enterprises. The operational, financial, and reputational woes of e-commerce platforms are laid bare in real-world incidents like WannaCry, Petya/NotPetya, and massive breaches across India. These case studies serve as a preface to the main review of e-commerce threats. That focal section first drives home the point that the risk landscape is expanding because the online services explosion is not being matched by robust, timely patching. Finally, it advances recommendations on what e-commerce platforms can do about all this.

Keywords

Cybersecurity, Ransomware, Supply chain attacks, E-commerce security, Software vulnerabilities