The web is a great place for business, everybody knows that. Unfortunately, it's also the best place for scams! But scams are not the worst, hackers are… not to mention viruses. So how can the web bring a company down? Some people say that it's not possible, but just let me explain.

For one thing, if you have a web-based firm, then it's clear. A few attacks, probably distributed denial of service or Iframe and the business will either be thwarted or credibility will be lost, that could cause the worst financial results. Just think about it - you could be severely sabotaged by competition on the Internet. For example, say you're running a religious site and an Iframe attack will lead visitors to a porn page. How's that going to affect credibility?

But that was just for web-based firms. But it gets a lot worse - you don't even need to have a website, for things to go bad! Spammers could use your firm in a pump-and-dump scam! That's the type of scam in which they send a lot of messages to people to convince them to buy shares at your company, the prices of stock will grow and grow, until people realize it's a hoax and sell out, fact which will make share value fall rapidly!

Oh, but that's not all! There are also clone sites to fear! If your company has a website and a scammer sees a possibility to use your company's credibility into tricking users, then a serious issue will pop up! Your site will be duplicated on a different server, trying to fool people into believing that it's genuine and also trying to make them send out money to the scammer. The one that will clone your site, will basically scam people in the name of your firm! Before you even know it, you'll join the "non trusted companies" list!

But these are just a few examples; other things could happen just as well, so be careful and stay secure!