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The expansion of the e-commerce industry has made it possible for thousands of firms and solopreneurs to achieve success in their own fields of expertise. However, because these enterprises are conducted over the internet, their primary concern is how to protect their virtual shop from the numerous cyberattacks that take place on the internet on a daily basis. Even though website building platforms such as WordPress, Wix, and Shopify do their best to provide customers with the finest security safeguards, it is still possible for hackers to circumvent these security mechanisms and access websites they have targeted. Consider the content management system WordPress. There are around 70,000 WordPress websites that are compromised each month, according to some reports.
Don’t get the wrong idea here, however; this doesn’t mean that you need to cross these website creation platforms off your list. The best course of action is to become vigilant, gain awareness of these attacks, and know the ways to secure your ecommerce website.
Just like the old adage says, “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
In this regard, you must know how to secure your ecommerce website to ensure that the next time hackers and trolls execute their schemes, your website is geared to outbattle them and ensure your long-term success.
Don’t know where to start? Fret not! This blog has you covered. Here, we will discuss five e-commerce security best practices, so make sure that you keep reading! But before we discuss the practices, let’s take a look at the most common threats to e-commerce security.
Here are E-commerce Security Threats to Watch Out For
One of the most common mistakes that online merchants tend to commit is being too busy—so busy that they end up overlooking the importance of monitoring the security of their online stores. As such, this makes them susceptible to cyberattacks. This is even scarier and more dangerous for small and medium sized businesses, where most of them mostly operate on a shoestring budget. It is important to take note that as technology advances, so do the hacking schemes of hostile users. Failure to address such issues can lead your business to lose all its assets, and worse, it can cost you your avid customers.
In this light, it is high time to know the most common forms of cyberattacks that could pose severe risks to your online business. Let’s know them one by one before it’s all too late!
1. Credit Card Fraud
This is one of the most frustrating issues that an online store could run into at any point in time. The credit card information that was stolen from your website, where it was still stored, was then used fraudulently, either to withdraw cash or make unapproved transactions and purchases.
Customers and store owners who operate online are both susceptible to credit card fraud. In addition to this, it tarnishes the reputation of the brand and has the potential to even cause the brand to go out of business.
2. Decryption of a Password
A password decryption scheme or password breach can lead to the theft of sensitive information, such as personal and financial details, that are stored in the databases of your website. This may take place if the password is divulged to a third party who is not authorized to view it. This is one of the most important concerns that needs to be addressed as soon as possible, and it should be done so as soon as possible if businesses want to avoid being the first ones to take the blame whenever something goes wrong.
3. Spam Attacks
One example of spam is the transmission and distribution of malicious links through online channels such as email, social networks, comments, and contact forms on a website. Because of these links, both you and your customers will be taken to websites that could compromise the privacy of their personal information.
What damage can be caused to your website by spam attacks? Spams can significantly reduce your site’s loading speed, affect your site’s functionalities, and ultimately compromise the integrity of your website’s security system.
4. SQL Injection Attacks
SQL injection, also known as “SQLI,” is a common type of attack vector that alters backend databases through the use of malicious SQL code in order to obtain information that was not intended to be displayed. This information might be confidential details about the company, user lists, or information about customers that must not be disclosed to any third party. SQL injection can be classified into three categories: in-band SQLi, inferential SQLi, and out-of-band SQLi.
5. Malware & Web App Attacks
Here, hackers are able to access the web server and steal sensitive information if they are able to install malicious software, spyware, viruses, or ransomware on digital devices. Digital devices are susceptible to having malicious software, spyware, viruses, or ransomware installed on them.
Attacks against web apps present a significant risk to companies that move their operations to the cloud because they are often carried out in conjunction with malicious software. Because poorly constructed programs contain a variety of flaws, hacking databases is an easy task that can be accomplished with little effort.
6. DoS & DDoS Attacks
A denial of service (DoS) attack is when someone tries to prevent you from accessing your website or online store. In order for this form of attack to be successful, your website will be inundated with traffic that isn’t essential. This will prevent regular customers from accessing your website. An attack that is known as a distributed denial of service attack, or DDoS for short, can be launched from a botnet or from a large number of devices all at once. A botnet is a network of computers that has been compromised due to the installation of malicious software. Botnets are also known as “zombie” networks. Both of these potentially damaging practices are designed to achieve the same end result, which is to make the speed of your eCommerce website slower.
7. Brute-Force Attack
Attacks that are based on random guesswork are frequently referred to as “brute-force” attacks. These kinds of assaults are commonly used for the purpose of locating hidden content and pages that are included within an online application and for attempting to get around authentication. It is common practice to use get and post queries as vectors for launching attacks of this nature against a server. When it comes to authentication, brute force attacks are quite common, and this is especially true in circumstances in which there is no account lockout policy in place to thwart the attacks.
5 Foolproof Online Store Security Practices
The security of financial transactions conducted online should not be taken lightly. Because of numerous data breaches, people’s faith in the reliability of digital security measures has been severely damaged. When a customer pays using a well-known platform, they have a greater sense of calm and confidence in the transaction. After all, in order to get somebody to hand over their credit card information to you, you’re going to need to be a little bit more convincing.
Therefore, in order to persuade customers to shop at your establishment, you should ensure that your website does not contain anything that could put customers’ personal information at risk. This will help you convince customers to shop at your establishment. As promised, here are some proven recommendations that will make it impossible for cybercriminals to access your website. Let’s dive right in!
1. Come Up With A Strong Password
Even though technologies like facial recognition and multi-factor authentication are beginning to pose a threat to the dominance of passwords as the conventional method of accessing software, passwords are still the most common method.
The problem with this method is that once hackers get hold of usernames and passwords that have been used before, they can be used on many different platforms, leading to widespread fraud. This can be a tough situation.
It is not a smart move to sign in to multiple accounts at the same time using the same password for each of those accounts. Make sure that the passwords for the database, hosting server, management panel, FTP accounts, and email accounts that are associated with your website are all unique. It is highly recommended that you use lengthy passwords that include a combination of letters, numbers, and other characters that aren’t typically used in this context.
2. Select a Strong Hosting Provider
You have access to an extensive variety of web hosting services, every one of which is available on the internet. Despite this, it is absolutely necessary for you to have a solid understanding of the numerous components that could significantly strengthen the security of your website. If you decide to make WordPress the foundation of your e-commerce platform, you will have access to a wide selection of hosting providers. Some of these hosting companies will automatically update the features and capabilities of WordPress, while others will give you the tools to create backups of your site.
In addition, if you want to increase the level of security that you have, you should make sure that your computer is always equipped with a firewall, DDoS protection, spam filters, and antivirus software. This is something that you should do if you want to increase the level of security that you have.
Check to see that the payment gateway you choose, such as PayPal, satisfies the requirements laid out by the PCI Security Guidelines Council.
3. Backup Regularly
When it comes to protecting your website from being hacked, creating a backup is very similar to purchasing insurance for it. You hope that you won’t ever need them, but if you do, you know that you’ll be glad that you have them on hand and that you didn’t have to scramble to find them. In the event that your web-based business is not successful, you run the risk of losing not only sales but also ordering information and the loyalty of your customers as well.
There’s no doubt about it: building a whole new website from the ground up is a rather taxing endeavor—wait—a nightmare of some sort. The last thing you want to do is lose everything that you invested in your website.
As a result, using hosts that provide backup solutions is an ideal course of action to reduce the likelihood of an incident like this occurring.
4. Moderate Content
In addition to hackers, there are also online trolls who are capable of carrying out on-page attacks. Online trolls can wreak havoc on your online reputation and cause disruptions to the internal operations of your website. These “trolls” are experts at, well, trolling, and the way they do it is by posting things on your online accounts and platforms that are unrelated to you and harmful to your reputation. Examples of these include social media pages and online communities. In this case, you’ll need the assistance of content moderators in order to keep them at bay and prevent disruption.
Content moderators are well-versed in this area and are able to keep a close eye on user activity while adhering to the parameters of your website. They are able to quickly identify postings that have been generated by potentially dangerous individuals and that are believed to be insulting not only to your company but also to the users who are dedicated to your platform. They are responsible for removing content of this nature and permanently banning the users who uploaded it. Make sure that you are protecting your business and your loyal users from potentially harmful user-generated content by ensuring that an active moderation system is running in the background.
5. Use A VPN for Your Remote Work Processes
This year, a growing number of people have become aware of the benefits of working remotely, not only for employees but also for owners of businesses. This awareness extends beyond the benefits that remote work provides to employees. On the other hand, giving remote online store managers access to the website and other crucial data can be dangerous in terms of maintaining the confidentiality of customer information.
Using a VPN, or virtual private network, is the best way to make sure that working with a remote team is completely safe if you’ve decided to go that route. A virtual private network is basically a piece of software that, once downloaded, installed, and turned on on a piece of hardware, encrypts the internet connection and gives your company’s sensitive data an extra layer of security.
Enhance Your Online Store Security
While the tactics used by website building platforms to increase the security of ecommerce websites get more sophisticated as current technology advances, hackers and trolls devise more intricate strategies to carry out their hostile plans online. Fortunately, there are some efficient remedies you can use to protect your online company from such assaults.
While all of the security threats can do severe damage to your online stores if left untreated, one of the most concerning risks is troll assaults, which typically occur in public places where your customers can see them—equivalent to bullies embarrassing you in broad daylight. What you want to do is get rid of these pesky cyberbullies as soon as possible, or your company will fail.
This is where content moderation can help. Content moderation protects you from the risk presented by hostile online users. Take, for example, Chekkee. Our comprehensive content moderation services are made to solve all kinds of problems with user-generated content, such as image content, video content, text-based content, and more, as well as website content and content on social media sites. To offer 24/7 protection against UGC-related dangers, our hybrid content moderation solution combines the experience of human moderators with artificial intelligence. We are particularly proud of our pay-per-service options, which allow you to gain access to 100% of our expertise without breaking the bank! Contact us if you want to learn more about Chekkee’s content moderation services and pay-per-service model.