Just imagine you are running an e-commerce website to earn money. The business is growing steadily. But, suddenly your website is hacked, and due to whatever reasons your shoppers’ data is also compromised. What should you do to protect their privacy and credit card information etc. on your eCommerce store? That is an important question if you want to run a trustworthy e-commerce website.
Top 7 Ways To Protect Shoppers’ Data On Your Website
Due to the ongoing pandemic and a whole host of other factors, more and more people are purchasing items online. However, according to a research report conducted by Juniper Research, there will be an 18% increase in online fraud in 2021. That is an alarming figure keeping in view the number of potential customers who purchase good services online.
So, how can you protect your shoppers’ data so that they keep coming back to your site and purchase more from you?
The data security of your shoppers should be your top priority. Putting customers’ details at risk of fraud and identity theft can damage your brand. Being an e-commerce store owner, you must ensure that you have the necessary procedures in place to keep your shoppers protected from all types of hacking and data theft.
Choose A Secure Web Hosting Provider
Web server-level security handled by your web hosting provider can greatly impact how secure your website is. A secure hosting provider should have multiple layers of hardware- and software-level
security measures to defend against all types of hacks and threats. They are required to monitor and secure sites 24/7 no matter what. This is the most important first step you should take to enhance the security of your website.
Do Not Keep Shoppers’ Personal Data For Long
The most straightforward way to improve your site’s cybersecurity is by regularly purging old data. This means establishing a procedure that deletes customers’ personal and payment details as short a while as possible after a transaction has been processed. By erasing information when it’s no longer needed, you’re immediately minimizing the chance of a breach.
Always Use Complex Passwords
No matter how sophisticated your on-site security measures are, a hacker will almost always decipher a weak password. To get around this, encourage uses to choose a complex combination of characters, including the capital, lowercase, number, and special character. A poorly chosen password will unlock a world of possibility for a hacker, with personal and financial details on display, so it’s important to insist on an uncrackable phrase.
Update Your eCommerce Website All The Time
Third-party apps can offer an immersive online experience. But they’re also a haven for hackers and are constantly being probed for weaknesses. App developers regularly release updates to improve security. But it’s often up to eCommerce business owners to update these apps plus the core website CMS such as WordPress or Magento, etc.
Ensure Compulsory PCI Compliance
The Payment Card Industry has a series of Data Security Standards, more commonly known as the PCI DSS. Businesses should abide by these standards to keep passwords and payment details secure. Adhering to these standards goes a long way towards ensuring cybersecurity for customers. All businesses that process even one card transaction should comply with PCI standards.
Install an SSL/TLS Certificate
Ensuring your site is encrypted means that, even in the event of hacking, breached data is often rendered useless. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a measure that protects you and your customers’ information through 256-bit encryption. You’ll know if a site is SSL certificated by seeing a padlock in the address bar of a site. The URL will begin with ‘HTTPS://’ instead of “HTTP://’. These days, many hosting companies provide a free SSL certificate to make sure that the websites running on their servers are actually safe from all types of theft and fraud.
Lockdown Admin URL Of Your Site
Anybody can find what CMS you are using to power up your eCommerce site. Hackers generally know what the login URL will be on a certain site depending on your choice of CMS. Change your login URL to make sure they can not guess it easily.
Your website hosting provider should limit login attempts by automatically banning IPs with more than a certain number of failed login attempts in a minute. You can additionally use a plugin or a script to set up login limits. No matter how secure your password is, there’s always a risk of someone discovering it. Beef up your security by adding 2-factor security to both your hosting account/dashboard and installation.
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