9 Effective Ways to Protect Your ECommerce Website from Hackers

Consider your security the top priority to protect your customers valuable information. There is always an eye of an identified thief on your Confidential information like social security numbers, credit card numbers and much more. Once leaked can harm you a lot. This online nuisance has many names, shapes and websites have become their soft spot. Poaching your important data is the interest of these cyber criminals.

Customers are switching to traditional channels to the internet for shopping which offers a wide range of eCommerce websites. With the rising number of online shopping, the security threats are also increasing. Cover up any holes in your security by implementing these simple solutions and save your customers from cyber attacks:

1. Keep Data Encrypted

Keep your data encrypted to avoid phishing attack and eavesdropping. Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to keep financial information secure and lessen fraudulent purchases over the website. SSL makes your data unreadable except the recipient, thereby protecting customers from hackers and fraudsters. It protects your highly sensitive data that travel across the web and encrypts confidential information such as passwords and credit card details.

2. Ensure PCI Compliance

Ensure an extra level of security for card issuers by being PCI compliant. If any merchant accepts credit/debit cards, both online and offline must meet all the regulations of  the PCI security standard council to make sure that they are keeping the payment data of customers safely and securely. Those who doesn’t comply with these standards will be subject to tough penalties.

3. No Need to Store Sensitive Data

Clear your stores regularly by purging old record, and keeping only a minimal amount of data for chargebacks and complete refunds. By keeping sensitive data on your site entices intruders to  steal the information like debit and credit card details causing harm to your customers. Prevent online frauds by verifying CVV2 [card verification value] codes and addresses for all online transactions.

4. Insist on strong passwords

Insist your customers set strong passwords while setting up their accounts on your site. This will minimize site breaches and protect all your sensitive information. Use a mixture of symbols, numeric numbers, small alphabets and capital letters to make it harder for the hackers to break and enter your personal information. Remind your customers to change passwords every 15 days or monthly.

5. Deep digger on firewall security

Avoid Trojans and virus attacks with a firewall, a layer of your network that alerts when any suspicious event occur on your server. With this extra layer of security avoid cross-site scripting attack and SQL injection. Buy a firewall and configure it correctly to monitor traffic coming to the server and detect and prevent data loss.

6. Check your Website Regularly

Monitor your websites and keep a check on your traffic activity with the help of tools. Regularly scanning your websites ensures non-introduction of malware into advertisements by  hackers and identity thieves. Peek into web application scanning tools that can help you to identify vulnerabilities that could put confidential data at risk.

7. Keep your system updated

Don’t forget to update to the latest version which fixes the current security issues. Avoid being a cyber victim because fraudsters always attack those software and systems that are not updated regularly. The new version helps in  smoother functionality and fixes bugs, thereby keeping your site safe and secure.

8. Choose a secure eCommerce platform

Choose a safe eCommerce platform that uses object-oriented programming language. Before going any further, check out the security credentials that handles all your data safely. Keep your hackers at bay by setting a strong password and changing it frequently for logging into your admin panel. Choose the best platform that can enhance your future and current growth.

9. Train your employees

Staff should be trained legally on the policies and laws of keeping information safe and protecting customer’s data. Keep security paramount and guide employees to adhere to necessary security practices. They should be aware regarding the customer’s profile, protocols, and guidelines in order to cut mistakes.

Conclusion

Over the years, the occurrence of frauds and the number of attacks over the internet has increased. It has become necessary to make sure that your customer’s data is safe and secured. Protecting your customers from security threats is important for your business success. Ward off the cyber attacks and keep your reputation intact by following the security tips.

This article is written by Kamal Kishore. He is a Search Engine Marketing Expert at Girnar Software (SEZ) Private Limited - an award-winning company offers custom magento ecommerce development solutions. Kamal is working in the industry since 2008 and focused on cohesive search engine marketing strategies based user experience and client objectives to drive maximum output. Follow him: Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Linkedin.

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