Today, you hear more and more about breaches and hacking on all types of websites. Unfortunately, e-commerce sites are not immune to these nefarious individuals. While many startup e-commerce businesses are considered tech-savvy, they may not have the expertise to improve their website’s security.
If you don’t deal with breaches or learn what is cybersecurity, you may find you have lost your site and all your customer data. The good news is, there are several ways you can secure your site.
Choose the Right E-Commerce Hosting Service
Selecting the web hosting service for an e-commerce site is crucial. The first thing you should look at is the host’s security options. Besides keeping hackers at bay, the hosting service should also offer a quality backup service. This will ensure that your e-commerce site is easy to restore after a security breach has occurred.
Look for a web host that operates 24/7, that has a maximum uptime history, and that offers RAID data protection. This will help your site perform faster.
Use HTTPS
It is smart to move your site to HTTPS. This is going to help you avoid situations involving online fraud. Before moving the site to an HTTPS, purchase an SSL certificate, which is a requirement. After you have bought your certificate from a known and reputable SSL vendor or the hosting company itself, you can install it and then alter the settings on your website.
Google also uses HTTPS as a ranking signal. It will help you achieve a higher SERP ranking and, eventually, more visitors. HTTPS is also important for your user’s protection. This is because it offers a secure link between the visitor’s browser and the site’s servers. It will prevent hackers from stealing information.
Select a Secure E-Commerce Platform
Before you choose an e-commerce platform, you must consider a few factors. These include things like features, performance, and support. However, it is necessary to put security at the top of this list. If you don’t then none of the other factors are going to matter. Make sure the e-commerce platform you choose offers secure payment gateways, provides you with regular security patches and includes extensions for shipping methods.
There is an array of secure platforms available to use, including WooCommerce, Prestashop, and Magento.
Secure the User Level Information
If hackers gain access to your website, they can cause a lot of damage and they will gain access to the user’s login information. As the admin, it is your responsibility to make sure that your customers are taking the needed precautions while on your e-commerce site.
The best approach is to automate the process that reminds your customers to change the passwords they are using once a month. The most secure approach to this is to automate the process of reminding your users to change the passwords they have selected after a month has passed. Also, encourage your customers to use unique passwords. This includes ones that consist of at least eight characters, at least one number, and a lowercase letter, uppercase letter, and a symbol.
Never Store Sensitive Customer Information
You need to make sure that you never store sensitive data, such as your customer’s credit card information, on your actual website. If you store sensitive information, it creates a huge risk. That is because if your system is ever compromised, you may wind up losing your current customer’s trust, and future customers may go to the competition.
If you want to prevent these incidents, use tokenization. This will generate random numbers that are called tokens rather than customer information. This can also help with preventing credit card fraud.
Run Vulnerability Tests on Your E-Commerce Website
When you perform regular and ongoing vulnerability scans for your e-commerce site, it will leave very few opportunities to be hacked. Every e-commerce platform is designed with unique tools that let you scan for potential vulnerabilities.
Select programs that will scan the website and your network. This will let you know the issues and risks that need to be fixed or addressed. Be sure that you use the best-known scanning programs to achieve the desired results.
Make Sure You Have a Website That is PCI DSS Compliant
As the admin of your site, you should ensure that your website is PCI DSS compliant. This is a security standard that will increase the admin control of a person’s card data to make sure credit card fraud does not occur. With this, your website can detect and prevent possible hacks and breaches before it causes an event that compromises your user’s account.
Update Your Website Regularly
Today’s hackers are always searching for vulnerabilities that may help them gain access to your website. As new vulnerabilities being discovered by developers, they are releasing more software updates than ever before. Make sure you update your site regularly because there is no way to tell when a hacker may attack.
Regular Backups Are a Must
Make sure that you are backing up your e-commerce site on a regular basis. Once a hacking incident has occurred, you will be able to acquire the backup of your site from your hosting service, which is going to let you restore the site completely. Make sure that you choose a hosting service provider that offers automatic backups. This will ensure your site is protected, even if you forget to manually back it up.
Implement a Content Delivery Network
This is a network of distributed servers that are designed to deliver content to users based on the services that are closest to their locations. The CDN will store copies of the website content and learn to detect any traces of malware. The CDN will be deployed at the edge of the network and used for blocking DDoS attacks.
Is Your E-Commerce Site Secure?
If you are unsure if your e-commerce site is secure, then now is the time to take action. Invest in some of the tips and information found above to minimize issues and keep your customers safe and happy with the services and products you provide.
