It’s no secret that as technology has expanded, hackers have multiplied. Hackers are a constant threat to E-commerce sites, where they steal credit card info and other personal information from customers. In order to protect your customers and keep your business thriving it is necessary for you to know how to keep your site secure. The 6 tips we’ll explain below will help you keep hackers far from your E-Commerce site and far from your customers.
1. Use a Secure Checkout Connection and Setup Suspicious Activity Alerts
This is a must if you plan to hold a position as a reputable E-Commerce site. By using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates to authenticate your business and encrypt the sensitive data used during the checkout process, you protect your customers and your business from having financial information stolen. An even more secure method is to use an EV SSL Certificate (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer), along with the URL green bar and SSL security seal from SSL2BUY. By using an EV SSL, the safety of your website will be unquestioned by your customer base.
[Read also: A Guide to SSL Certificates]
2. Never Store Sensitive Data on Your Database
There is absolutely no reason why you should need to keep records of your customers’ sensitive information for extended periods of time. PCI Standards strictly forbid the storage of unnecessary private customer data such as credit card details. You should regularly purge your database of old records and only keep the minimal amount of data needed for each customer
3. Use Tracking Numbers on All Orders and Use an Address and Card Matching Verification System
To prevent fraud on charge-backs, include tracking numbers on every order you ship out. This practice is even more crucial if your business drop ships. Employ an AVS (Address Verification System) to check the cards information against the information of the customer using it. The two sets of information should match and any discrepancies should be evaluated by your system before allowing the transaction. You should also require the card’s CVV code for any debit or credit transactions to ensure additional security.
4. Require Strong Passwords
As a business it is your responsibility to protect your customers from being robbed while conducting business with you. However, you can make your job a little easier and help your customers avoid preventable problems by requiring complex user passwords. The best and hardest to steal passwords include Lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers and/or symbols as well as maintain a character value higher than 6. Read here to learn more on how to create a strong password.
[Read also: Avoid Creating Vulnerable Passwords]
5. Layer on Your Security
Most hackers are looking for easy targets; they don’t want to put tons of effort into cracking a site. By layering on the security features you’ll make the job look harder than it’s worth and deter most attackers. Start with firewalls and then place additional layers of security, like login boxes and search queries. Think of it like scaling a barbed wire fence only to reach a locked door, only the most determined criminal is going to stick around to mess with it. Besides deterring hackers these measures will also stop application level attacks, such as Structured Query Language injections and XSS cross-site mapping.
6. Use a Fraud Management Service
It is a smart choice to be covered just in case your company does become the target of a successful attack. Fraud happens all the time and hackers develop new strategies every day, if they breach your company you don’t want to be left solely responsible for the damage. Most credit card companies offer fraud protection management services and using one is always a great idea.
[Image via: Google Images]
This is very essential. Protecting your online data is very important and you should be well aware of the facts and provide necessary upgrades to your database.
Thanks for sharing this post. I have some doubts can I use IT security engineer for my ERP website.
Please let me know.