Be it a bank or an online store, security is of paramount importance. Customers deal with those businesses that make them feel safe and secure. After all, they are paying their hard-earned money and would have high expectations of the measures taken to ensure its safety.
The bad news is that cybersecurity attacks are increasing on a YoY basis. There are no stopping cybercriminals who are becoming better at what they do on a consistent basis. This makes e-commerce security a matter of top priority for business owners.
For an e-commerce business, website security is easier said than done. It involves several technical intricacies that a naive internet user might understand like Greek and Latin. Nevertheless, it cannot be skipped either. The longevity of the business and its reputation in the industry is dependent on the security measures that the business takes.
Here are some such fundamental and trusted security measures that will secure your e-commerce website for a long time to come
SSL certificate
An SSL certificate is the primary form of internet security. It comes in the form of a bit-sized encryption file that can scramble information send between two systems on the internet. These two systems can be a customer device, like a smartphone, pc or a laptop and the server of the online store. By encrypting the data exchange, the SSL certificate ensures that hackers are not able to intercept data through man in the middle attacks.
Why e-commerce businesses need an SSL certificate?
SSL certificates improve user trust for data security on the website. An advanced version of the certificate such as EV SSL which displays the company name in the browser helps to establish the visible veracity of the website. It helps to improve conversation and trust for e-commerce business. Needless to say, an SSL certificate is not a security expenditure, rather an investment that will deliver long-term results.
Needless to say, an SSL certificate is not a security expenditure, rather an investment that will deliver long-term results.
PCI DSS compliance
PCI DSS stands for payment card industry data security standards. It is a commonly agreed upon protocol of sorts that every organization that collects, handles or stores credit card information is bound to adhere to.
The benefits of ensuring PCI DSS compliance is that:
- It ensures your business has an industry-approved security standard
- It helps avoid fines in case of lawsuits
- It reduces the damage in the event of a security breach
PCI DSS compliance is designed to be achieved in several stages. Depending on the volume of transactions, the level of PCI compliance expected will also carry. Here is a gist of the compliance levels.
Firewall protection
SearchSecurity defines a firewall as “a network security system, either hardware- or software-based, that uses rules to control incoming and outgoing network traffic.”
Think of it as a CCTV setup that monitors who visits your website, where the traffic originates from, whether it exhibits any kind of anomalies and so on. A firewall proves to be instrumental in blocking botnet-based cyber security attacks.
A large number of malware, botnet malware and spyware systems exhibit common traits which a firewall can detect proactively. It can stop the bots from entering the system thus preventing the possibility of a network shutdown, or worse hacking of the database.
DDoS protection
DDoS stands for distributed denial of service. In DDoS attacks, bot-led programs flood a website with too many http requests. The website server unable to cater to the spike in traffic breaks down, giving the hacker an opportune moment to launch an attack and penetrate the system.
According to f5 labs report, there is a 64% increase in world-wide DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks can be hard to recover from and can leave an ecommerce business crippled from conducting business for a long time.
There are four primary ways of defending your ecommerce website from DDoS attacks:
- Have an incident response plan in place
- Maintain contact with isp provider to alert anomalies
- Be updated about the latest botnets that are spreading globally
- Be in the vigil for common traits of DDoS attacks
Security for admin panel
Ponemon institute’s cyber strategies for endpoint defense 2014 study found that more than half of organizations provide employees system administrative rights. While increasing workloads require sharing of admin rights, this also opens a serious issue that network administrators and security officers could be overlooking.
Most employees who have admin user rights do not take precautionary measures to keep the access controls secure. Even fundamental measures like keeping the password confidential, changing the root directory of admin panel, enabling two-factor authentication for access, etc. Are you carried out?
This creates an open door for hackers who can easily target loosely secured websites and hijack their admin folders. With access to admin panel they are able to take down the entire website and also the information hosted in it.
Conclusion
Ecommerce has become the new way of doing business. Brick-and-mortar stores are reclining to a back seat due to the excess pricing pressure and competition that online stores are giving.
The lucrative profit margin and the quick way to success has lured many entrepreneurs to try their hand at launching an online store. But, an ecommerce store is not easy to run. Apart from the regular challenges of running a business, there are several other things that the business owner must rank as high priority.
The top of such priorities is cyber security. Cyber security attacks are increasing in number on a daily basis. Prevention is better than cure.
This blog is a round-up on some of the ways a ecommerce website can secure itself from most common types of cyber security attacks. Implement these steps right away to make your website secure for customers.
