The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has identified more than 4,000 different retailers that have been compromised by hackers exploiting known vulnerabilities on checkout pages in order to divert payments and steal payment card details.

The NCSC has been quietly alerting vulnerable retailers over the past 18 months.

Based on the data gathered by the NCSC the majority of impacted retailers were using the e-commerce platform called Magento which is a favored option among small and medium-sized UK retail operations.

Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year and it is right around the corner. Therefore the agency wanted to do all that it could to ensure that everyone has a safe and largely uneventful shopping experience with no unpleasant surprises.

In addition to warning UK retailers the NCSC recommends that businesses of all sizes do all they can to secure their sales portals including applying all available security patches in order to minimize risk. That’s good advice no matter where in the world you are and no matter what size your business is.

By now everyone with an online presence is well aware of the fact that web traffic the day after Thanksgiving puts a tremendous strain on the internet. Hackers lurk in almost every corner ready to swoop in and steal what data they can from excited shoppers. Hackers do it hoping people won’t notice the illicit activities they’re doing until it’s far too late to do anything about it.

All too often the assumptions of the hackers prove to be correct. Then unfortunate internet users wind up spending months and hundreds if not thousands of dollars trying to reclaim their identities or pay off debts run up by the hackers themselves.

Don’t let that happen to your customers. If you haven’t already done so conduct a thorough review of your company’s security systems to be sure you’re ready for the holiday rush.