7 Ways To Protect Your E-Commerce Site From Cyber Attack

E-commerce sites have revolutionized the way people shop around the world. This digital generation is swiftly moving away from the brick and mortar shops to the online shops for everything, from daily needs like groceries to expensive purchases like jewelry & electronics. The concept of e-commerce is a great success and its not only because of high-end web technology or marketing excellence it's also because of the efforts invested in earning people's trust and assuring safe transactions. Every E-commerce website owner knows the importance of making people safe while they share their details for an online purchase, which is crucial to earn customer's trust. Once this trust is lost, the buyer may either shifts to competitor's site or turn away from your online store forever.

In order to keep the trust of your digital buyers strong on your e-commerce site, you need to ensure that your e-commerce site is secure from any potential cyber-attack. If there is even a slight hint of a security breach or cyber-attack, the customer would refrain from entering the sensitive card or online transaction details on your website and leave it forever. To keep the buyers trust and hold your reputation strong, you need to protect your e-commerce site from any type of cyber-attack. Here's how you can do it.

Choose A Secure E-Commerce Platform

Choosing a secure e-commerce platform is the first and the most crucial step to safeguard your site from cyber-attacks. E-commerce platform is the main foundation for your online store. You need to see that the e-commerce platform you are choosing is making use of a sophisticated object-oriented programming or OOP language so that your internal network and administration panel becomes completely inaccessible to the attackers. Have a look at the scalable security provisions, integration of third party security provisions and the latest version of the platform to make sure it is safe and secure from any threat.

Select The Right Hosting Provider

The hosting provider you choose has a big impact on the security of your e-commerce site. Don't go for a host that is not specifically catering to all the demands of a business website because these are mainly used for general purposes. To ensure the security of your e-commerce, you should opt for a business dedicated host provider. The web hosting company should also offer security services like immediate disaster recovery, 24*7 technical assistance, monitoring of network, AES encryption and scheduled backup programs to protect your site from cyber-attacks.

Get SSL Certification

We've heard it a number of times that a site with an HTTPS encryption is more secure than the one with HTTP encryption. To ensure the security of your page, get a strong SSL aka Secure Sockets Layer authentication. It not only protects your data and sensitive web information but also authenticates the identity of your business. This way, the online buyers can trust your site more for security and enter their important information on your page. To strengthen the trust, go for an EV SSL certificate that gives a green signal for site security by adding a green HTTPS prefix and a green symbol on the address as well.

Store Less To Lose Less

There would be no threat of cyber-attack if you do not have any sensitive information stored on your e-commerce site. Remember, if you can avoid saving the financial information of the customer, then do so. According to the PCI Security Council, it is
never a good idea to store any type of sensitive information like credit card or debit card details on your personal server. It is recommended to store a minimal amount of data that would be enough for refunds or charge-backs on your e-commerce site to protect it from cyber-attacks. If you have nothing to offer, the cyber attackers would never care to rob you.

Become PCI Compliant

For an e-commerce website supporting payment through cards or online transactions, it is important to comply with all the regulations given out by the PCI Security Standards Council to prevent any type of cyber-attack. Perform all the security tasks that are asked by the Payment Card Industry to become PCI compliant. Not complying with the regulations may leave the sensitive account and card information of your online customers vulnerable to the attacks by cyber criminals and hackers. Moreover, you may also have to pay huge fines for not complying with the same. Timely PCI risk assessments should be performed according to the number of transactions taking place on your e-commerce site annually.

Layer Your Security

Build a strong security wall that cannot be breached by the cyber attackers. This wall can be made solid and concrete by layering up your security on the e-commerce site. The first and foremost layer of security should be created using a firewall. To add layers to your security, you can put in various applications, contact information forms, search queries, login boxes, CVV2 boxes etc., to protect your e-commerce site from application level attacks such as ross-site scripting (XSS) or SQL (Structured Query Language) injections.

Get Regular Updates

Your e-commerce website must be using a number of plugins, extensions, applications and templates for the smooth functioning of your online store. E-commerce sites with plugins, applications, templates and extensions not patched or updated regularly become an easy target for cyber hackers. Hackers are always on the lookout for e-commerce sites that are not updated with the latest security patches. These latest updates can prevent your e-commerce business from any potential cyber-attack.

These were the 7 ways to protect your e-commerce site from any type of cyber-attack. Keep them in your mind and follow them properly to safeguard your site and your customers information from the criminal minds of the cyber world.