The Role of Session Hijacking Prevention in Preventing Affiliate Fraud

1. The Role of Session Hijacking Prevention in Preventing Affiliate Fraud Session hijacking is one of the significant types of fraud in affiliate marketing. Affiliate fraud can happen between login and logout. Malicious affiliates search for sessions where they can gain unauthorized access to your users’ accounts. The primary aim of session hijacking is to steal the data of your users. Fraud in affiliate marketing is an eyesore for your organization’s marketing team. You are always happy to pay commissions to affiliates who create value for your company. But paying commissions to the nefarious affiliates always hurts. Affiliate marketing fraud, like session hijacking, can dent your customers’ trust. Threat actors orchestrate a session hijacking attack to gain unauthorized access to a user’s session. They assume the victim’s identity for deeper exploitation. It is a severe affiliate fraud and derails your campaigns. Companies are implementing session hijacking prevention tools to monitor their affiliate networks. Overview of Session Hijacking Session hijacking, also known as cookie hijacking, refers to the process of taking control of a user’s session. In this process, the malicious affiliates take control of the user’s session by obtaining a fake session ID. Threat actors use cross-site scripting (XSS) to access session cookies. By gaining access to the cookies, a malicious affiliate can invade the accounts of the user. It involves threat actors stealing a valid session token from your customer and accessing their accounts. If your users are facing issues with session hijacking, consulting with ad fraud detection companies can help. These agencies have solutions that will monitor your affiliate networks 24/7. Cookies are Integral to the Success of Affiliate Marketing Cookies are integral to the success of affiliate marketing campaigns. Your marketing team needs to attribute sales to individuals clicking on affiliate ads. They tend to rely on cookies to attribute sales. Cookies are pieces of information about a user when they visit your website. VIRUSPOSITIVEVipul Trade Center, Unit#130- Phone + 91 - 124 - 2666031 131,440, Sector-48, Gurugram-122001 Email- sales@viruspositive.com

2. The device of your customers, stores cookies. Even legitimate affiliates working with your company can place cookies on your customers’ devices. Cookies track the online activity of your customers. Hijacking cookies can lead to affiliate fraud. Ways in which Malicious Affiliates Execute Session Hijacking Threat actors have numerous options to hijack your user’s session. Here are some of the common ways in which a malicious affiliate hijacks the session of your users. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) In an XSS attack, the nefarious affiliates inject client-side scripts that can capture session tokens. In XSS attacks, nefarious affiliates can also use malicious JavaScript codes to obtain the session ID. Nefarious affiliates can trick users into clicking malicious links to a website that contains query parameters. Brute Force You can gain meaningful insights into what is typosquatting by consulting with the best affiliate fraud detection agencies. In the brute force method, nefarious affiliates guess the session ID of your customers when they are browsing through your website. Once a malicious affiliate realizes that the server uses predictable IDs, it is easy to execute session hijacking. Why is Session Hijacking Prevention Essential? Session hijacking can affect your affiliate marketing campaigns in an adverse manner. The most severe repercussion is the access of malicious affiliates to your user’s data. Here are some other consequences associated with session hijacking. Infecting your User’s System with Malware Using a stolen session ID, a threat actor can infect your customer’s device. By leveraging a stolen session ID, the threat actors gain control of your customer’s devices and steal their financial data. Stealing Personal Information Session hijacking allows threat actors to access confidential information. The confidential information may include passwords, credit card numbers, etc. With such type of information, a threat actor can execute identity theft attacks on a larger scale. VIRUSPOSITIVEVipul Trade Center, Unit#130- Phone + 91 - 124 - 2666031 131,440, Sector-48, Gurugram-122001 Email- sales@viruspositive.com

3. Erodes Trust between the Brand and its Customers Session cookie hijacking is one of the most dangerous affiliate frauds. It allows the threat actors to gain access to your customer’s financial data. By gaining access to your customer’s financial data, malicious affiliates can erode trust between you and your users. It may result in reputational damage and legal liabilities for your company. False Insights and Session Hijacking During cookie hijacking, malicious affiliates feed false information to your marketing team. The risk of deriving false insights is always higher in cookie hijacking. Threat actors also inflate several types of data. Decisions based on these wrong datasets will affect your campaign’s performance in a negative way. Risk of Losing Revenue Your organization’s marketing team pays commissions to legitimate affiliates who fetch your clicks. But during cookie hijacking, you pay commissions to the nefarious affiliates. Cookie hijacking results in financial losses as you may have to reimburse the legitimate affiliates. How can Virus Positive Technologies help with Session Hijacking Prevention? Virus Positive Technologies (VPT) is pioneering affiliate marketing tracking. The advanced tools of VPT continuously monitor your affiliate networks. The advanced methodology of VPT can identify non-compliant behaviors. You can rely on VPT to monitor affiliate fraud. VIRUSPOSITIVEVipul Trade Center, Unit#130- Phone + 91 - 124 - 2666031 131,440, Sector-48, Gurugram-122001 Email- sales@viruspositive.com