17 E-commerce Security Tips and Protection Plan for Your Online Store

Where there is money involved, criminals follow. Did you know that global ecommerce fraud losses are expected to reach $91 billion in 2028?

Needless to say, if you’re an online store owner, you should be well aware of the latest ecommerce security protocols, including threats and remediation tools.

Just as you would invest in security guards and cameras for a physical shop, you must prioritize security measures for your ecommerce website to protect your business and achieve customer trust.

This blog will educate you on the most common security threats and explore several steps you can take to make sure you can sleep peacefully at night, knowing your online store is safe and sound.

Why Prioritize Ecommerce Security?

With almost all of us shopping online now, it is no shocker that ecommerce sales are estimated to reach $6.86 trillion by 2025. But unfortunately, this surge in popularity has also attracted cyber criminals, leading to increased security threats.

A 2023 study concluded that online payment fraud will cause business losses of up to $362 billion between 2023 and 2028.

Image source: Fit Small Business

It is important to prioritize ecommerce security for multiple reasons, not just financial protection. Here are some reasons why:

• Customer trust: Protecting sensitive customer information, including personal identifiers and payment details, builds your customer’s confidence in you.
• Reduced financial loss: Proactive security measures reduce financial losses resulting from fraud, chargebacks, and the costs of sorting out security breaches.
• Performance: A secure website is protected from disruptions (like DDoS attacks) that lead to website downtime and lost sales.
• Conversions: Secure platforms have better conversion rates because customers are likely to buy from a website they can trust. Badges like SSL certificates may give you a competitive edge.

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10 Most Common Ecommerce Security Threats

Following are some of the most common ecommerce security threats that you should be wary of.

1. E-skimming

Also known as the Magecart attack, e-skimming is an advanced cyberattack targeting online stores. Malicious code is injected into a website’s checkout page, secretly capturing customer payment details. This sensitive information is then sold on the dark web.

A high-profile example of this occurred in 2018 when British Airways suffered from a massive data leak, affecting nearly 400,000 customers. By injecting malicious code into the payment forms, the attackers sucked out sensitive payment information.

2. Financial Fraud

Hackers make unauthorized transactions and wipe out the trail costing businesses significant losses. Some fraudsters also file requests for fake refunds or returns. Refund fraud is another common fraud in eCommerce where businesses refund illegally acquired products or damaged goods.

3. Malware

Malware is malicious software designed to infiltrate computer systems, networks, or devices without the user’s knowledge or consent. These programs can steal data, disrupt operations, or hold systems hostage. Common types of malware include:

• Adware: Displays unwanted advertisements.
• Trojans: Disguised as legitimate software but containing harmful payloads.
• Fileless malware: Operates entirely in memory, evading traditional antivirus detection.
• Ransomware: Encrypts data and demands payment for decryption.
• Rootkits: Conceal their presence and provide persistent backdoor access.

4. Spam

While email marketing is known as a strong medium for higher sales, it is also one of the most used mediums for spamming. Spam costs businesses billions annually. Other than emails, comments on your blog or contact forms are also an open invitation for online spammers, who leave infected links in order to harm your site’s reputation.

5. Phishing

Phishing is where hackers masquerade as legitimate businesses and send emails to your clients to trick them into revealing their sensitive information by presenting them with a fake copy of your legitimate website or anything that allows the customer to believe the request is coming from the business.

Common phishing techniques include emailing your customers or team with fake “you must take this action” messages. This technique only works if your customers follow through with the action and provide you with access to their login information or other personal data, which the hacker can exploit for their benefit.

6. Bots

Bots account for over 40% of traffic to retail websites. You may recognize bots from your good books, such as those that crawl the web and help you rank your website in Search Engine Result Pages.

However, some bots are specifically designed to scrape websites for pricing and inventory details. Hackers can use this information to alter your store’s prices or target popular items in shopping carts, leading to a drop in your sales and revenue.

Source: Imperva

7. DDoS Attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and DOS (Denial of Service) attacks aim to disrupt your website and affect overall sales. These attacks flood your servers with numerous requests until they succumb to them, and your website crashes.

8. Brute Force Attacks

Brute force attacks target your online store’s admin panel in an attempt to figure out your password. It uses programs that establish a connection to your website and use every possible combination to crack your password. You can protect yourself against such attacks by using a strong, complex password, which you should also update regularly.

9. SQL Injections

SQL injections are cyber-attacks intended to access your database by targeting your query submission forms. They inject malicious code into your database, collect the data, and then delete it later.

10. Cross-site scripting (XSS)

Hackers target your website visitors by infecting your online store with malign code. These attacks can lead to identity theft, financial loss, and damage to a website’s reputation.

Preventing XSS requires careful input validation and output encoding to neutralize malicious scripts. You can safeguard yourself against it by implementing a Content Security Policy.

17 Ecommerce Security Tips for Your Online Store

Now that you know the threats, it is time to thoroughly understand how to protect your store.

Ecommerce stores with ideal security have some features in common. Let’s break down these features and explore the best ecommerce security tips so that you can prevent any issues that may cost you your business.

1. Choose a Secure Web Host

One of the most important steps to take for a secure ecommerce website is to choose a secure web host. A reliable web host is crucial for ecommerce security. Good hosting providers offer essential protections like:

• SSL Certificates: Encrypts data transmission, safeguarding customer information.
• Firewall Protection: Acts as a barrier against malicious attacks.
• Regular Security Updates: Protects against vulnerabilities.
• Data Backups: Ensures data recovery in case of breaches or system failures.
• DDoS Protection: Safeguards against overwhelming traffic attacks.

Cloudways all of the above and more. We offer a secure hosting environment with dedicated firewalls, free SSL certificates, and login security through 2FA. You can whitelist IP addresses for secure SSH and SFTP access, while application isolation and database security ensure your Ecommrce store and data are protected from unauthorized access.

2. Opt for a Solid Ecommerce Platform

Source: WooCommerce

A strong foundation for an ecommerce store starts with choosing the right ecommerce platform. Your ecommerce platform, like WooCommerce, provides the tools to list products, process payments, and manage orders. For example, WooCommerce offers key security features such as SSL encryption, role-based access control, etc.

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3. Keep an Eye Out for Malicious Activity

If you don’t want any malicious attack to go under the rug, you should keep your eyes open for any suspicious activity. This can save you a lot of trouble – not to mention revenue – since you can potentially catch a fraudulent transaction before it can take place.

You can use SEON for real-time fraud monitoring. It analyzes emails, phone numbers, IP addresses, and uses machine learning to spot suspicious activity. For instance, in situations like where a scammer may use different cards to place multiple orders or orders where the person using the card isn’t its holder, tools like such can be very useful.

4. Switch to HTTPS

Using outdated HTTP protocols makes you vulnerable to attacks. I strongly recommend that you switch to HTTPS which displays the trustee green lock sign that says “secured” next to the URL bar on your customer’s computer.

HTTPS protocols not only protect the sensitive information users submit but their user data as well.

Since HTTP protocols are mostly defunct now, most modern browsers display a message warning the user from proceeding further because the website is insecure. Not just that, some browsers outrightly block the user from accessing the site.

Another benefit you get from upgrading to HTTPS is a higher ranking on Google’s search page since Google considers HTTPS as a ranking factor.

5. Secure Your Servers and Admin Panels (Use Strong Passwords)

Don’t rely on the default passwords that come with ecommerce platforms. Create your own password which is strong and difficult to guess. Use complex password(s) and usernames and change them frequently.

6. Keep An Eye On Your Activity Logs

You can go one step further and make the admin and control panels notify you every time an unknown IP attempts to log in. While an activity log cannot stop a cyberattack, it serves as a valuable tool for monitoring website activity.

By recording all actions, it helps identify suspicious behavior, pinpoint the source of issues or errors, and accelerate troubleshooting processes. Your web host can make a difference here too. Cloudways comes with a built-in malware protection add-on which let’s you setup server and app alerts.

Image shows Cloudways Malware Protection Add-On dashboard.

7. Choose a Secure Payment Gateway

While it may make processing payments more convenient, storing credit card numbers on your database is a liability. It’s nothing less than an open invitation for hackers where you put your brand’s reputation and your customer’s sensitive information on the line. If you fall victim to a security breach, the heavy fines may force you into bankruptcy. Authorize.net is one of the top payment gateways out there for eCommerce stores.

Source: Fit Small Business

In order to save your business from this terrible fate, you should never store credit card information on your servers and ensure your payment gateways security is not at risk. Additionally, you can use third-party payment processing systems to carry out the process off-site. Popular ecommerce payment processing options include PayPal, Stripe, and Skrill.

8. Obtain PCI Compliance

You must obtain a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). It is a standard that protects credit card information on ecommerce websites. PCI compliance is not legally mandated, but it is strongly recommended if you’re dealing with card data.

9. Use Antivirus and Anti-Malware Software

Hackers often target e-commerce stores to steal customer data and financial information. A popular example is the Japanese keyword hack. It happens when hackers add unwanted Japanese content to your website. This can trick search engines into ranking your site for irrelevant Japanese terms.

To safeguard your business and maintain customer trust, use powerful antivirus and anti-malware software. These tools can detect and prevent a wide range of threats, including malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.

Consider reputable options like:

• ESET Endpoint Security: Offers advanced protection for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
• Bitdefender GravityZone: Provides security solutions made for businesses.
• Kaspersky Small Business Security: Delivers reliable protection at an affordable price.

Regularly run vulnerability scans to identify and address potential weaknesses to proactively protect your store, customers, and reputation.

10. Use Firewalls

Another effective ecommerce security recommendation is to use a firewall. It keeps untrusted networks at bay and regulates traffic that enters and leaves your site by offering selective permeability. It also protects against cyber threats such as SQL injections and cross-site scripting.

Cloudways offers a server-level firewall to shield your server from malicious traffic and unauthorized login attempts ensuring 24/7 protection.

11. Prioritize SSL certificates

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) secures any data transmitted between a user’s browser and the server, including credit card details and transactions. SSL certificates encrypt data to protect it from interception between different destinations. The information you send from your end to the server is secure.

If you want to conduct any type of business on your site, you require SSL certificates so that every process that takes place on your site is secure. SSL certificates also provide you with a certificate of ownership so hackers can’t use your site as a counterfeit for phishing. The SSL certificates also display reliability to consumers, and they trust you more with their information.

12. Employ Multi-Layer Security (CDN and 2FA)

You can fortify your security by using various layers of security.

CDN

You can use a wide-spread Content Delivery Network (CDN) to protect your site against DDoS attacks and malevolent incoming traffic. A CDN is a global network of servers that delivers content to users based on their geographic location.

How do they help secure your site?

CDNs distribute traffic across multiple servers to mitigate DDoS attacks, encrypt data transmission with SSL/TLS, and filter out malicious traffic through features like web application firewalls (WAFs) and bot management. By caching static and dynamic content, CDNs also reduce the attack surface of the origin server.

You can get Cloudways Cloudflare Enterprise CDN add-on for just $4.99/month per domain. It offers robust DDoS protection, a secure Web Application Firewall (WAF), and features like wildcard SSL and PCI compliance for maximum site speed and safety. It offers advanced tools for businesses that prefer performance and security over anything.

2FA

You must also use two-factor authentication to squeeze in an additional layer of security. Two-factor authorization requires a standard username and password combination and an extra code sent as an email to the user or as an SMS to their provided phone number. This ensures that only the user can access the service even if their username and password are at risk.

Cloudways offers Two-Factor Authentication (TFA) as a secondary layer of protection to make sure that only you can log into your Cloudways account.

13. Use Ecommerce Security Plugins

Apart from SSL and multi-layer security, you should also use ecommerce security tools like plugins, which automate several security-related tasks for you. Security plugins provide protection against bad bots, SQLi, XSS, code injections, and hundreds of other severe attacks. Some plugins you can check out include Wordfence, Sucuri, and MalCare.

14. Backup Your Data

Data backup is an important preventive measure. Data loss due to hardware malfunction or cyber-attacks is pretty common. And if you don’t back up your data regularly, you are at the risk of losing it for good. Employ an automatic backup service so that even if you forget to do it manually, all your data will be backed up automatically. Security plugins can also do this for you.

You can go one step further and make a copy of the backup, so you will have a contingency plan available if you lose your original backup. Another option is to choose a managed ecommerce web hosting service that automatically creates backups for you. Cloudways, for instance, offers Automated offsite server-level backups, on-demand application-level backups, point-in-time restore, full restore, and hourly backups.

15. Secure User Access

When granting access to your website, it is essential to implement security measures by carefully assigning user roles and permissions. Adhering to the principle of least privilege is generally recommended.

This involves granting users the minimum necessary permissions to fulfill their duties. For instance, basic website access can be provided through the subscriber role, while content creation and management require roles such as contributor, author, or editor.

In WooCommerce environments, the shop manager role should be assigned judiciously due to its authority over refunds and order management. Plus, only one administrative account should exist to maintain overall website control.

16. Schedule Regular Site Updates

Regularly updating your WordPress website is crucial for maintaining its security and performance. Hackers actively exploit outdated software, making it important to install security updates regularly. These updates patch vulnerabilities and introduce new safeguards.

Beyond the core software, plugins and themes also require frequent updates to address issues and improve functionality. To smoothen this process, you could enable automatic updates. Not only does this save time, but also prevents your website from becoming an easy target for cyberattacks.

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17. Educate Your Customers

Some lapses in security don’t happen on your end but on your customers’. They might be using weak passwords or might deliver sensitive information on phishing sites in the hands of hackers. You can solve these threats by educating your customers.

One effective approach is to create informative blog posts or articles detailing common security threats like weak passwords, phishing scams, and public Wi-Fi risks. You can also send targeted email campaigns highlighting best practices, such as using strong, unique passwords, avoiding suspicious links, and recognizing phishing attempts.

Educate them about the risks associated with unsafe security practices. You can also bypass this and simply let them sign up via Facebook or Google which already offer cyber security.

How to Secure Your Ecommerce Store From Malware With Cloudways Malware Protection Add-on?

If you are a Cloudways user, the Malware removal add-on can automate malware related security for you, providing an extra layer of convenience along with protection.

Cloudways Malware Protection Add-on, powered by Imunify360, automatically identifies and removes malicious code from your application’s files and database. It offers protection through real-time scans, daily scans, and automated cleanup.

How to Enable and Use the Malware Protection Add-on

1. Go to App Management for your selected app.
2. Find the Malware Protection menu.
3. Click on Enable Protection.

Once the add-on is activated, it will automatically remove any detected malware from your applications, which can be viewed under the Malicious tab.

To Sum Up

As we have established earlier, when it comes to the security of your online store, there’s no room for mistakes. One critical failure could cost you your business. Therefore, the best approach is to invest in ecommerce security as much as you invest in its marketing or web design.

Spend money on ecommerce security tools while you make sure to choose a reliable hosting provider that offers automated security. Malware is a great risk for many established eCommerce stores, and our Malware Protection addon is designed to address just that, offering powerful protection without costing an arm and a leg.

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments, and I’ll be sure to get back to you.