A cyber attack on an eCommerce site will always be a hot topic. For cyber thieves, they offer an endless source of personal and financial information. The cost of a breach can be very damaging to businesses of all sizes in both terms of data loss and customer trust. eCommerce Security is essential to safeguarding your ecommerce loyalty. .
eCommerce business owners understand these threats and are taking security measures to protect their businesses. According to a report, 77% of businesses surveyed had purchased new cybersecurity products in the past year and 69% had hired more security personnel.
Obviously, in this constant game of cat and mouse, as online retailers add ever more sophisticated technology to their websites, cybercriminals are also honing their skills and finding new vulnerabilities. In this article, we will discuss the best tips for securing your eCommerce website using which you will have the proper knowledge to secure it from cyberattacks.
Top Measures for Securing Your eCommerce Store
To successfully strengthen your cybersecurity infrastructure, you can take the following best initiatives.
Thoroughly Perform Security Audits
It is better to prevent than to cure when it comes to web application security, especially when it comes to eCommerce applications.
To minimize cybercrime susceptibility, digital store owners must conduct frequent manual and automated security audits and make necessary adjustments, including:
- Regularly updating scripts and applications.
- Use strong passwords to access accounts, dashboards, and servers.
- Maintaining IP and domain integrity.
- Implementing cryptographic network protocols for encrypting your entire web application.
- Updating incomplete, irrelevant, incorrect, poorly formatted, or duplicate information on a regular basis.
Regularly Create Backups of Your Data
While data backups are generally a good practice for eCommerce websites, they also contribute to the security of your shop. Cyberattacks can corrupt your data and render it unrecoverable. To prevent loss of data, restore website operations quickly, and serve your customers without interruptions, regular data backups are imperative.
High-priority items that you should back up include the following:
- Important website codes
- Database
- Content files
- Configurations and settings
- Themes and layouts
Utilize Secure Hosting Services
Features and price are important considerations when selecting a web hosting service, but security must not be sacrificed for low prices or a variety of features. The following security features should be considered when choosing a web hosting company:
- Automated and regular backups and data retrievals for websites.
- Secure Socket Layers (SSL) configuration, availability, and support.
- Valuable Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection and mitigation protocols and a relationship with a content delivery network (CDN).
- Remote, automated, and regular malware scanning and detection for rapid detection and isolation of software infections.
- Secure handling of regular software updates.
Protect the Online Payments Process
The creation of secure and simple checkout processes not only prevents cybercrime but also assures customers’ money is protected. To achieve this, eCommerce companies must:
- Verify that the buyer is the cardholder by matching their IP address with their billing address.
- Authenticate and encrypt data with security protocols such as SSL and TLS.
- Ensure the safety of sensitive payment information, convert it into a string of random numbers.
- Authenticate transactions and reduce fraudulent chargebacks using 3D Secure.
- Verify online payments by requesting the Card Verification Value (CVV).
Also Read: Fixed- WooCommerce Payment Method Not Showing at Checkout
Execute Vulnerability Scans
Assessing and scanning your cybersecurity design for vulnerabilities can help you prevent them from being exploited by hackers. Organizations must conduct systematic checks on their networks, applications, hardware, and entire IT landscape regularly. Specifically, they must:
- Identify the full scope of vulnerability testing and develop a concrete methodology.
- Perform manual and automated vulnerability scanning, assigning severity levels to vulnerabilities based on risk ratings and scores.
- Use fresh security patches, product updates, real-time antivirus software, and remote firewalls to address vulnerabilities.
- Invest in advanced technologies to minimize vulnerabilities, such as predictive artificial intelligence and automated malware engines.
Establish a Robust Customer Authentication System
It is crucial to set up a foundationally secure customer authentication system to overcome and prevent specific attack vectors. The following are some best practices for eCommerce businesses to consider:
- Implementing passwordless authentication.
- Enabling single sign-on and federated login.
- Using safe authentication libraries and securing account recovery.
- Establishing mutual authentication and two-factor authentication.
- Setting up rate limiters alongside CAPTCHAs to count failed authentication attempts and temporarily block access.
- Using password strength checkers and disallowing vulnerable passwords to enforce password strength.
Educate Your Staff
Your employees manage your eCommerce operations. By educating them on potential cybersecurity threats, they will be better equipped to identify and even tackle these threats, thus drawing the attention of appropriate authorities to them.
It is also imperative that your customers are educated on how to avoid cyber fraud, especially during peak spending periods such as the holidays, when cybercriminals are most active.
Final Words
To conclude, eCommerce security is essential to protecting your online store from cyberattacks that can damage your reputation and cause financial loss. To avoid potential threats, it is important to implement strong security measures (as we discussed in this article). Suppose, after implementing these tips, the cyber attack is still not under control, then you should hire a custom software development expert to fix the problem.