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Crucial Tips to Boost Your Ecommerce Security

So, you’re ready to launch your business into the online world. Your website is up and running and looks fantastic. You’ve already created a bunch of informative content that is going to captivate and engage visitors. And most importantly, you have a product or service that you know is going to benefit a vast array of people. But before you can confidently sit back and watch the sales come in, it’s vital that you bolster your ecommerce security.

With the seemingly endless opportunities to now grow your business online, the unfortunate fact remains that cyber-crime has intensified to alarming levels. If you fail to enforce ecommerce security adequately, then you open yourself to hackers and thieves that seek to steal and defraud.

When hackers get hold of your customer’s sensitive information — most notably financial details — this can have a disastrous effect on your business. Not only are your customers being robbed, but they are also likely never to trust you or buy from you again. Worse still, your reputation could be negatively impeded and may take years to recover — if at all. Particularly lousy customer experience could even gain media traction. So, how do you keep cybercriminals at bay and protect the credibility of your brand? Here are some tips to get you up to speed and to break down what you need — from ecommerce platforms to EV SSL.

Always use a reputable ecommerce platform

As a business owner, you must select an ecommerce platform that provides you with a large support community. You ideally need to choose an ecommerce platform that has high usage. It will indicate many factors — notably how tested, updated and compliant it will be. And you want to select a platform that is regularly updated. It will ensure that any ominous bugs are more readily detected. As a rule, the more popular the platform is, the more secure it will be.

Maintain a secure connection

This sounds straightforward, but what exactly does secure connection mean? It means protecting the flow of information between your customer’s web browser and the ecommerce store.

This is done by implementing encryption that protects personal and financial information from being stolen. If your website or ecommerce store starts with https:// or if you see a green padlock in the address bar, then you’re already using a secure connection. If you don’t notice these characteristics (your site starts with http:// or is there is no padlock in the address bar) then this is cause for concern. Your website is not secure, and you run the risk of being hacked. So, how do you go about establishing a secure connection?

The first step that you’re required to do is purchase an SSL certificate from reputable certificate providers like SSL2BUY. In the online world, this is known as a Secure Socket Layer (or SSL) certificate. SSL certificate creates a secure tunnel between the server and browser to pass information securely. It secures usernames, passwords, credit card numbers and more. A more reliable and advanced certificate is Extended Variation (EV). For all ecommerce transactions, it is crucial that you utilize an EV SSL. EV SSL Certificate creates a green bar on the browser by showing a company name. By using an EV SSL, not only will your website or ecommerce store be secure, you’re more likely to generate better SEO ranking.

Keep sensitive data to a minimum

Yes, there are going to be times when running your business that you need to store information about your customers — notably their name, phone number, billing address etc. But because this data is considered as Personally Identifiable Information (or PII), it is incumbent upon you to keep this information safe. This only emphasizes the importance of maintaining a secure connection.

If your customer’s personal information is stolen from your site or online ecommerce store — and you failed to implement a secure connection, then this could spell disaster for your business. You could find yourself being held liable for any damage occurred to the customer.

The most crucial aspect when it comes to storing data is to never — under any circumstances — store your customer’s credit card information. While it may be more convenient to store credit card information, it is simply not worth the risk to either your customer or yourself.

Keep a watchful eye on your website or ecommerce store

There are ecommerce tools and monitoring devices that can aid in detecting fraudulent activity. However, the risk of being hacked can largely be mitigated if you regularly check for suspicious activity yourself.

By keeping a close eye of transactions, you are much more likely to identify potential risks as they happen — rather than after it’s too late. Also, third-party tools will assist you in picking up anything that doesn’t seem quite right.

Some other helpful tips to improve your online security include:

• Properly securing the admin panel — Make sure that you do this by changing your admin username from the default settings. The more unique, the better! The same goes for your admin password. Keep it strong and around 8–12 characters in length.

• Regular data backup — This way, if someone does hack your website, you’re able to restore it quickly.

• Utilize an ecommerce security plugin — This will protect your online business by preventing malicious requests from reaching your site in the first place.

• Implementing ecommerce security best practices — For the most effective way to do this, it’s best to go through your CMSs security best practices documentation and follow the recommended steps that are outlined.

As you’re probably already aware, running an online business can sometimes seem scary. Hackers and thieves are always on the lookout for consumers they can either steal from or defraud. However, with the proper knowledge and support, you can successfully secure your website or ecommerce store. And once that’s taken care of, you can get back to what you do best — running your business!

Author Bio — Derek Iwasiuk is an experienced blogger who has written articles for several renowned blogs and websites about various uses of social media to engineer more business traffic on business websites.