Considering the rapid advancement in technology, it is only natural for Ecommerce to expand even more in the coming future. In light of Statista report, in 2017, ecommerce made sales of around $2.3 trillion. Speaking of this, it is estimated that it may end up hitting about $4.5 trillion in 2021. That’s one huge record!
With great power comes great responsibility.
Ecommerce sure has the power to transcend borders – with that comes the real challenge in terms of security. While there is an easiness of doing a business, the risk of theft and forgery has tripled and is one of the gravest concerns of the customers, in addition to those who aspire to kick start an online venture. And rightly so, considering the fraud which comes as a part and parcel of ecommerce has risen up to 30% as reported by Experian, an information services company.
With the frequent data exploitation of websites, the question arises as to how an ecommerce business can protect its website from potential hacking and theft.
Tips to Manage Website Security
Following are some tips that may prove to be beneficial for you to secure your website and allow customers to shop online safely, without any fear of information theft.
- The Ecommerce Hosting Service Puzzle
It is, perhaps, one of the most confusing puzzles that is of paramount importance to the online businesses. One wrong decision can really impact the search rankings and end up causing website downtime.
It is essential to ensure that your website takes off easily and seamlessly. A good hosting option will breathe life into your business so make sure that you opt for one which is extremely reliable. Now that we are on the topic, let us see what factors make a web hosting service an ideal choice.
When it comes to the task of zeroing upon a hosting service, you simply have to look out for three major factors. First being the security, then comes performance, maximum uptime it offers, and there’s the factor of scalability you simply cannot ignore.
- Security
There’s not a single day in ecommerce where you do not hear about sensitive information being stolen or the credit card fraud. So, it is important that you have explored each and every precautionary measure and have things already taken care of with regard to data security.
So, how do you exactly ensure that?
One way is to see that the hosting service you opt for is by all means PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliant. If you are new to this, here is a quick overview regarding the set of rules and regulations ecommerce security comes up with and what exactly does it mean to be PCI compliant.
Make sure that HTTPS/SSl is supported by the platform in question. It is the standard securing method in the market!This means that the customers will be able to checkout safely from your webpage.
- Performance
No one likes a website which takes a lifetime to load. If it takes too long, the visitors will definitely leave your page and look out for some other options that direct them on the desired webpage. One must keep in mind that there is a cut-throat competition in digital marketplace – late by a minute can cost you millions. So, the performance should be up to the mark or stellar, to be exact.
- Uptime
The performance of a hosting service goes hand in hand with the uptime it offers. With an ecommerce business, big sales like Black Friday or Cyber Monday will surely take place and uptime would give your business the much needed edge when the traffic could literally drown the site down.
Downtime at all times has to be avoided so that you won’t miss out those lucrative sales!In the long run, this proves to be the final nail in the coffin if a business is losing its position in the digital market.
- Scalability
You never know to what extent your business may end up stretching to. Naturally, you would need to adjust and make changes in order to meet higher or new demands. And one thing you would want to see as your business expands is that the website scales along with its expansion. You wouldn’t want to stand clueless when the business is soaring and you do not have the space to accommodate it.
This makes it important to choose a platform with enough capacity to allow a smooth expansion by being able to fit the ever so growing business of yours. And at the same time, ensure that doing so won’t cost you a big fortune.
Other than the aforementioned factors, you may want to question the following crucial points when choosing the hosting service;
Does it offer 24/7 support?
What about the backup?
Is it going to be on a shared server? If the answer is yes, then how many sites are exactly going to be there in addition to yours?
Once your chosen service falls upon the aforementioned factors, you are half way through running a successful ecommerce venture and bask in all the profits awaiting you.
2. Layer it up
With all the personal and financial information at disposal of the cybersecurity criminals, ecommerce websites are easy to access and hack. Layering your security is another effective way to ensure no cybercriminal is able to invade the website. So, what could be implemented to protect the webpage? Let’s delve into the options below.
- Firewalls
It is a system which helps in filtering out the traffic and prevents any potential intrusion, thereby providing an up to the mark security to the networks through a predefined set of rules.
A firewall does not necessarily have to be software. It, in fact, could be hardware, built-in into the routers.
Yet, you would still need other tools so as to be able to combat other viruses, malware, and key loggers. Hence, an anti-virus tool which best complements the firewall in use should be employed in order to secure the ecommerce website to the fullest.
- Passwords
Here comes the tricky part! The longer, unusual and random your passwords, the more better it is for the website.One needs to be really smart to craft a password that is too difficult to crack.
You can seek a password manager’s help to make your password game strong. You may also ask your customers to use strong, complex passwords when shopping online. Alphanumeric passwords are the easiest to guess. Therefore, it is advised not to rely on them and reach out to a complex mix. A mix of capital letters, small letters, symbols and numbers would do.
- Test out the vulnerabilities
Running regular scans to trace out any vulnerabilities will keep hackers at bay in order to lessen the chances of any lurking threat.This will give the correct amount knowledge as well as awareness for a better understanding regarding the threats standing tall to disrupt the workspace.
There are two approaches to this: authenticated and unauthenticated scans.
As far as authenticated scan is concerned, the visitor logs in as a user, thereby discovering vulnerabilities accessible to an intruder who has managed to gain access as a trusted user. An unauthenticated scan, on the other hand, means the testing is carried out for the intruder to access the network which is not at all trusted. This reveals vulnerabilities accessible without even having the need to log in to the networks.
3. The Bot-Detection
As per a report by Distil Networks, the number of malicious bots has increased by 9.5 in 2017 to a whopping 21.8 percent in 2018.
What exactly do these nasty bots do?
Often referred to as zombies, bots can tamper with a number of activities by duplicating them. They can easily perform credit card frauds coupled with account creations and account takeovers. Moreover, it also leads to denial of service attacks (DDOS) – even after demands are fulfilled, it holds the items in-demand in the shopping carts (denial of inventory).
How can you get out of it?
Just make the right use of technology and you can identify and conquer bad bots. There are many great tools to detect bots that can be used to effectively get rid of them.
- Captcha
Captcha is the most sought after protection method against bad bots. This can help cast aside the bots trying to pose as humans to get an entry. It is relatively easier for humans to crack captcha than for the bots. This is what makes it an ideal resort.
It requires a user to type some characters in the given field just below the pictures.Captcha manages to outnumber even the most powerful bad bot operators through complex gamification techniques as well as time-bound challenges and mind boggling puzzles.
- The Detect and Block
It is a strict measure as it involves blocking each and every IP address through which the website receives malicious requests. It even blocks those addresses which are suspected to pollute the webpage.
This probably would have been the most effective method had the internet users did not exceed the addresses in number. This has caused a big time ruckus! Yet, it still manages to be fruitful and can be used to filter to distinguish the attacker from a potential customer.
We hope the above tips and tools help you in the long run. The right mix of these tips can really solve the problems and keep your website all safe and sound!
The best way to determine where your ecommerce website stands on security grounds is to carry both forms of scans regularly and simultaneously. This is the only way corrective measures could be employed at the right time without any sort of delay.
