Every year the number of online businesses continues to grow, but unfortunately, as the amount e-commerce sites increase, so do the amount of devastating hacking scandals. As new trends, apps and tech create fresh ways for e-commerce businesses to compete and progress, hackers develop ever more creative methods to bring them tumbling to the ground.
To protect your e-commerce site from attackers, here are six simple ways to guard against security threats.
Select a Secure Platform
While it may be tempting to build your e-commerce site from scratch, it is typically cost, time and security effective to adapt an existing platform. By altering as opposed to creating you will be using a system that already has defensive measures and solutions in place, making it easier to secure your business.
Only Store Necessary Data
This one is simple: hackers can only steal information that has been stored on your site, therefore only keep what is essential. One of the easiest ways of doing this to avoid keeping card information post-checkout – while return users will have to re-enter this data, it reduces the risk of theft. Alternatively, outsource payment to a secure encrypted server.
Enforce Password Limits
There are a whole host of common passwords that make it easy for hackers to access user accounts. To help fight them off, ask that all passwords contain a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers. In addition, you could require additional security steps, including secret answers.
Use System Alerts
Tracking activity on your website is crucial in order to detect suspicious behaviour, so make sure to employ system alerts. This may include a wide range of checks from locking the account after numerous failed attempts, to keeping track of IP addresses and monitoring patterns of usage.
Test for Vulnerabilities
While credit card or finance companies may require you to carry out specific tests to assess the security of your e-commerce site, to protect your online business, make sure to regularly use additional checks. This includes firewalls, vulnerability scanning, security assessments, and penetration testing from an accredited provider such as Nettitude.
Always Backup Databases and Systems
When you have any kind of business, you should always be prepared for the worst. For an e-commerce site, this means backing up systems and data. This way if your server fails or your site is breached, you have a solution in the form of an offline backup.