Cybercrime is on the rise and is having a devastating effect on e-commerce. As an online store owner, you should keep a close eye on the latest eCommerce security practices and equip yourself well to handle eCommerce security issues. Luckily, this post covers everything you need to know.
3 Key Factors for eCommerce Security
In a nutshell, eCommerce security refers to the measures that online store operators take to protect their businesses and customers from cyber threats. This includes ensuring secure online transactions and preventing data breaches.
The more effort you put into the security of your eCommerce store, the more trust you will gain from your customers. There are 3 key factors for eCommerce security that you should consider:
1. Data Protection
Privacy is paramount when selling and buying online. It can be reduced to one principle: preventing any activity related to the disclosure of customer data to unauthorized third parties. In other words, no one other than the online seller customers have dealt with should be able to access their personal data, including bank or credit card details.
While you’re working hard to protect your customers’ privacy, hackers are constantly looking for opportunities to breach your defenses. Data breaches are now commonplace, yet they cause enormous damage to online businesses and consumers alike.
2. Authentication
Authentication means that both parties, the sellers and the buyers, are genuine. The sellers of goods or the providers of services should be genuine and honest about their offerings, such as product quality, offers, and money-back guarantees.
On the other hand, customers should prove their identity so that sellers feel secure in online transactions and the chances of eCommerce fraud are minimized.
3. Integrity
Integrity plays a key role in eCommerce security as it ensures that the information shoppers have provided when purchasing online remains unchanged. Simply put, it is not altered or manipulated by online businesses.
Any action that alters customer information, even in small part, can undermine the trust between shoppers and online businesses.
Common Security Problems in eCommerce
- Phishing: Fraudsters use emails, text messages, or phone calls to deceive their victims and ask them to reveal private information such as passwords, account numbers, social security numbers, and more.
- Malware and ransomware: Once hackers inject malware and ransomware (a type of malware) into your website, they gain control of the entire administrative dashboard. As a result, you can be locked out of all your important data and systems.
- DDoS attacks: These overload your servers with traffic to take your site offline.
- Brute force attacks: Attackers attempt to crack passwords through repeated login attempts.
- SQL injection: This occurs via web applications in which attackers embed malicious SQL statements. From there, they can gain access to the database and steal or destroy your sensitive data.
- Cross-site scripting (XSS): Attackers inject malicious scripts into trusted websites.
- E-skimming: E-skimming is when hackers steal credit card details and personal data from payment card processing pages on e-commerce websites.
8 Best Practices for Increasing Security in eCommerce
1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords
Strong passwords are the first step in warding off cyber attacks on e-commerce stores. It’s important that you avoid using common passwords, as this is the easiest way for hackers to access your website.
Don’t forget that:
- A password should consist of at least 8 (but ideally 12 or more) characters , made up of upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
- A password is unique, which means you can’t share it with others or use it on all e-commerce websites and social platforms.
- You can use a password manager like LastPass, or a password protection plugin like PPWP Pro, to create and manage passwords automatically.
2. Use Layered Security
In addition to strong passwords, you can also increase security in eCommerce by using multi-layered protection for your store. 2SV, 2FA and MFA are some great options you can seriously consider – they’re similar, but their definitions vary.
- 2SV, also known as 2-step verification: users must enter a one-time code that is sent by email, text message or phone call.
- With 2FA or 2-factor authentication, you will be asked to verify your login attempt via another device.
- MFA, also known as multi-factor authentication, is very similar to 2FA, but requires more than 2 factors for authentication.
3. Use HTTPS/SSL (Secure-Socket Layer)
Once you’ve switched to HTTPS, a green lock sign representing “secure” will appear next to your URL bar when customers visit your website. HTTPS protocols not only protect the sensitive information users enter, but also their data.
In addition, switching to HTTPS is crucial for search engine optimization. Your website will rank better in search engines with HTTPS, as over the years it has become considered as a ranking factor, and it’s now pretty much mandatory for all serious websites.
4. Secure Your Data
Taking regular backups of your website can reduce the risk of data loss due to brute force attacks and sudden data breaches. And if you forget to back up your data regularly, you run the risk of losing it forever.
In the event of an attack on your website, you can use the backup files to restore your website and get it back up and running quickly. For those building an online business with WordPress, there are some trustworthy WordPress backup plugins, such as UpdraftPlus or Jetpack.
5. Install Antivirus Software
Antivirus software is a simple but effective solution to prevent hackers from damaging online businesses. An antivirus software uses sophisticated algorithms to detect all malicious transactions, which keeps you informed when serious eCommerce problems occur.
A major advantage is that the software comes with a fraud risk score that allows owners to determine whether a particular transaction is legitimate.
6. Check Plugins Regularly
Regularly review all of your plugins to see if there are any plugins that are outdated or incompatible with the latest version of WordPress. If you have any plugins that you no longer use, be sure to remove them from your website.
Otherwise, attackers can use these outdated plugins, find their vulnerabilities, spread malware and gain access to your eCommerce website admin dashboard. So, it’s not worth taking the risk leaving outdated plugins installed on your site.
7. Use Solid Firewalls
Adding firewalls to your eCommerce website is another great way to strengthen your eCommerce security. Firewalls only allow trusted traffic from real users to pass through and access your website. They also keep spam, XSS, CSRF, malware, SQLi and many other attacks at bay.
Some good firewall tools you can check out are Astra Firewall, WordFence, Sucuri Security, Cloudflare, and SiteLock. They offer various levels of protection, from basic firewall capabilities to full security suites that include malware scanning, DDoS protection, and real-time threat intelligence.
8. Comply with PCI DSS Requirements
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI-DSS for short, is responsible for protecting all credit card data. All companies that allow credit card transactions should strictly adhere to these requirements.
PCI DSS is a set of security standards established by major credit card companies (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and JCB) to ensure that businesses process, store, and transmit credit card information securely.
Non-compliance can result in significant penalties, including monthly fines starting at $10,000, potential termination of your ability to process credit cards, and damaged reputation if a breach occurs.
Conclusion
Hopefully by now you’ve realised: eCommerce security is important. Data protection, integrity and authentication play a key role in your eCommerce store.
There’s a variety of common security issues that eCommerce stores face today, like phishing, malware, DDoS and brute force attacks, SQL injection, XSS and e-skimming. To protect your business from these attacks, remember to set strong and unique passwords, use layered security, a firewall and make sure you’ve got an SSL certificates installed.
Also, fon’t forget to back up your data, check outdated plugins regularly, and make PCI-DSS compliance a routine. By taking your eCommerce security seriously, you can make sure
