Tips to Increase your Ecommerce Website Security
Hacking immobilizes your business from data access for a while. It could happen in the form of malware, ransomware, virus attacks, brute force attacks, etc. Legally Hacking classify as fraudulent since it is made with the intent to hurt a business, steal its resources or worse, destroy the brand reputation in the industry.
A massive security breach at eBay that occurred in 2014 makes many customers worry about their online shopping. The attack hurt the company’s trustworthiness as a reliable shopping website for a long to come. Such type of incident you will never want to experience as an online business owner.
Whether you have a one-day-old online store or a generation old retailer getting into the eCommerce space, cybersecurity is a game you cannot afford to skip. It is critical to survival. In the digital age, it is the most secure website that survives for the long-term.
In today’s post, we delve into some eCommerce website security measures that will safeguard you from hacking and fraud.
Set The Base Right With A Secure E-commerce Platform
Your store is only as good as the platform upon which it is built-in. A shaky and insecure platform is sure to swarm by hackers. And, it doesn’t take an expert hacker to break into a website nowadays. Even a novice computer user with off the rack hacking software can break into your site and whiz away with precious customer data or financial information.
Would you want that? No, right? Put your best towards security by choosing an eCommerce platform that has security measures in place like malware assessment, botnet detection, security integrations, minimal password policy, customer data purging, etc.
Embrace HTTPS for sign-ins and checkouts
If you have a sharp eye, you must have noticed that individual websites have the URL beginning with HTTP:// while others start with HTTPS://. The additional ‘S’ indicates that an SSL certificate secures the site.
An SSL certificate is a small data file, generally on KBS file size. It does the task of encrypting and decrypting information sent to and fro over the Internet. An SSL certificate helps in preventing data theft and interception that is prone to happen at sign in and checkout pages.
Encryption ensures to prevent hackers from gaining access to sensitive information such as customer details, banking credentials, credit card information, etc. They help to secure passwords and user credentials which if hacked can have detrimental effects.
SSL Certificates being authenticated and issued by a registered CA (Certificate Authority). CAs named Comodo, Symantec, GeoTrust, GlobalSign, DigiCert & Thawte are known and internationally recognized.
CAs appoint resellers/distributors to expand geographically reach. Resellers deal volume business w/ CAs and commit quality services to their customers. Buying SSL certificate from resellers will save up to 60% on CA’s direct pricing.
SSL certificate pricing comparison b/w CA and Reseller:
Product Name | Features |
---|---|
Comodo Positive SSL |
|
Comodo Store Price | $49.00 Per Year |
Cheap SSL Shop Price (Reseller) | $4.95 Per Year |
You can simply own a Cheap SSL Certificate at www.cheapsslshop.com to get a huge discount on your SSL purchase.
Change Credentials for Admin Accounts
Admin panels is a control center which controls the whole website. Losing control of your admin panel is the worst thing you would ever want to have. A safe thing to do would be to change your admin credentials.
If you are using WordPress, change the admin login from default ‘admin’ to something that is difficult to guess. Also, the password should be kept confidential and a secret to you alone. If you have other moderators and contributors, their login credentials should also be instructed to be kept a secret to avoid security mishaps.
Keep Sensitive Data Off the grid
Anything that requires to being kept from unwarranted disclosure can be categorized as sensitive data. It includes your customer records, their credit information, your store’s financials, employee records and the likes. Such information in the hands of troublemakers can ring the death knell for your brand’s reputation.
Recently, sensitive data exposure rattled the public trust and brand reputation of credit reporting form Equifax. The company acknowledged publicly that the breach resulted in 143 Million user records are compromised.
Given the security breach of this scale, the future of Equifax as a trusted destination for credit reporting is doubtful. The same applies to any other business on the web. You simply can’t afford to store information online if you cannot afford to lose it.
Aim for PCI DSS Compliance
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard lays down specific security measures that companies collecting credit card payments must follow. These security measures ensure that there is a uniform approach to cybersecurity concerning online payments and that customers or businesses do not suffer due to any lapse.
Being an online store and a business that collects credit card information from customers, your store might also have the need to comply with PCI DSS compliance. If your compliance is not necessary, ensure that your compliance stays ahead of the security curve.
This chart explains – how much security compliance you have to achieve for each level of business volume:
Deploy a Web Application Firewall
It is such fundamental factor in cybersecurity, yet most website owners tend to overlook it. A Web Application Firewall does the delicate task of checking what kind of requests come to your server and what type of data is sent out. It is a regulator that keeps botnets and other malicious codes from entering the system.
WAF forms the first perimeter of defense for your store. It ensures that critical information not easily accessed without the admin’s knowledge. When you add more layers to the WAF to prevent malicious code injections in the form of cross-site scripting and SQL injections, your website is sure to remain safe from hacker’s privy.
Final Thoughts
A storm brewing in the cybersecurity world. Hackers are all arms against individual users and enterprises. They are after every data that can be sold on the dark web. If not to be sold, they intend to create a loss of reputation and infuse credibility issues for companies.
You don’t want to fall into their hands, don’t you? As the old age adage goes, prevention is better than cure. It is better to deploy proactive security measures than taking preventive measures when something goes wrong.
We have made a gist some such cybersecurity measures above. Have anything more to add? Please feel free to let us know.
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