Data theft A number of recent exploits have resulted in the theft of thousands of customer details including passwords, credit card numbers, addresses and even social security numbers. They've been stolen, used illegally and even re-sold on the Net. Just as serious can be details of customer transactions, prices paid, discounts provided and current tender details. If these go you probably won't hear about it but your client's business could be compromised. Having your client's site's front page replaced by a Photoshopped picture of a naked President Clinton is only funny to other people.
Damage can be subtle and have serious business consequences.
This is one of the more insidious threats. The redirection can be to an embarrassing site or more seriously, could invisibly propel prospective customers to a competitor's site. Many won't even notice. This covers a multitude of activities including using your mail servers for spamming, using your site as a jumping off point for attacks on other sites, pornography storage and so on. A subtle misuse is to steal your bandwidth.