The Long Game: How a 6-Year-Old Backdoor Compromised the eCommerce Landscape

In the 21st-century enterprise, cybersecurity is no longer just a matter of firewalls and endpoint protection. It’s about the integrity of every line of code that flows through the digital supply chain.

Hundreds of eCommerce sites, at least one of which is owned by a $40 billion multinational company, were impacted by a supply chain attack, Sansec reported Thursday (May 1). Cybersecurity observers believe the next major wave of enterprise breaches may not come from direct attacks but rather through trusted dependencies and third parties.

The attack came from a sophisticated backdoor embedded within 21 Magento extensions concealed within license verification files, the report said.

The most surprising part? The attackers left the code dormant for six years and only activated it in April, ultimately compromising between 500 and 1,000 eCommerce websites with malicious code capable of stealing payment card information and other sensitive data, per the report.

Organizations are no longer dealing solely with smash-and-grab breaches. The Magento incident serves as a sign of a broader evolution in cyberattacks, from quick heists to long cons. As organizations grow more reliant on complex software, the security of their supply chains has emerged as a critical, and often under-protected, frontline in the battle against cyber threats.

This is espionage at the code level, and the prolonged and covert infiltration of eCommerce providers serves as a reminder of the evolving tactics employed by cybercriminals and the critical importance of proactive cybersecurity measures. As the digital economy continues to expand, ensuring the integrity of the software supply chain is becoming a paramount concern for businesses worldwide.

Read also: Rise of Industrialized Fraud Heats Up Cyber Arms Race

While eCommerce might seem far afield from traditional enterprise IT, the interconnected nature of digital business means that vulnerabilities in one part of the ecosystem can ripple outward. A breach in an eCommerce plugin can cascade into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and payroll software.

Today, software is rarely built from scratch. It is assembled and stitched together with open-source components, third-party APIs and vendor libraries. This model accelerates development, but it can also spread risk because many companies don’t have a complete picture of what code is running in their environments. A single compromised dependency can compromise thousands of downstream systems.

The problem can be exacerbated by visibility gaps. Many enterprises struggle to maintain accurate inventories of their software components. Without knowing what’s under the hood, it’s nearly impossible to detect tampering, let alone respond swiftly when a vulnerability is disclosed.

“It’s become harder to monitor all the various ways that fraudsters attack businesses,” Eric Frankovic, general manager of business payments at WEX, told PYMNTS in September.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “AWS and Mastercard Lead Call for Urgency in Protecting the Payments Perimeter” found that attack surfaces expand beyond traditional endpoints to encompass APIs, third-party integrations and multicloud environments.

This new landscape may demand a shift in mindset. Trust-based assumptions, which were once the norm in IT supply relationships, are increasingly being replaced with “zero trust” frameworks that continuously verify and monitor every component and user. Software bills of materials (SBOMs), automated code integrity checks and secure-by-design principles are no longer optional but are becoming operational necessities.

See also: CFOs Embrace Zero Trust Architectures as Back Offices Go Headless and Distributed

The software supply chain has become the enterprise’s soft underbelly — a complex, dynamic ecosystem that requires just as much scrutiny as traditional IT infrastructure. To stay ahead of evolving threats, businesses must prioritize software supply chain security as a core part of their cybersecurity strategy.

“It is essentially an adversarial game; criminals are out to make money, and the [business] community needs to curtail that activity,” Hawk Chief Solutions Officer Michael Shearer told PYMNTS in February. “What’s different now is that both sides are armed with some really impressive technology.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Leveraging AI and ML to Thwart Scammers,” a collaboration with Hawk, examined the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning to help keep fraudsters from getting the upper hand.

As the digital economy grows more complex, enterprises must ask harder questions about the software that powers their operations. The weakest link may not be the firewall; it may be a forgotten file buried deep in a plugin from six years ago.

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