One of the most important considerations regarding an ecommerce website, if not the most important, is the security of the site. In today’s age where it seems like there have been so many data breaches that we’ve become numb to them it may seem like a daunting task to secure a website from malicious actors but it is something that needs to be done. So as you are building your ecommerce site what do you need to do in regards to security?
Choose The Right Hosting Service
The right hosting service can go a long way and is the first major choice you have to make. Your hosting service should be able to do a lot of things for you like not only hosting your site but they also should backup your site and offer good security services to keep your website as safe as possible. The host should be operational as close to 24/7 as possible. The more downtime a service has the less time people are able to get to a site.
Nicely Done Sites offers a hosting service to all of our clients. Our security offered is intended to keep our clients safe in a difficult world and we strive to have uptime as close to 100% as possible. For a small business we believe that our hosting service is as good as can be found.
HTTPS and SSL
Any website should be secure and the easiest and most basic way to do that is to use HTTPS rather than HTTP. To have an HTTPS site you need to purchase a SSL certificate. This creates a secure link between the user’s computer and your website on a server by encrypting data which will prevent the theft of data. Using HTTPS also has another benefit besides security, it boosts your SEO ranking as well, meaning more people will hopefully be able to find your store.
The websites that we create at Nicely Done Sites use HTTPS and we stress using this to any client. For an ecommerce site it is necessary and we can set this up for you quickly. At the bare minimum your site needs to have this.
Your Ecommerce Platform Makes A Difference
Which platform are you going to use? It is the next big decision and the security that goes into the platform makes a big difference. There are differences in the platform that is used, from support, to ease of use to platform maintenance as well as security but how each platform incorporates secure payment gateways and security patches goes a long way towards which platform people choose.
There are a number of very good ecommerce platforms that are tried and true like Magento and WooCommerce. At Nicely Done Sites we have worked with these platforms and can say that they work well but no platform is 100% secure and the larger the platform the bigger the target.
How Is User Information Secured?
You are going to need to have users to have a successful ecommerce site. Customers will need to login to the site (and hopefully they will be doing it often!) which means your site will be storing information about them. It might just be name, address, email address and phone number, it might be more. All of that information is valuable to a hacker. How can you make this more difficult for a thief to take advantage of? Using secure passwords is the most common way to combat this and some sites go as far as forcing users to change their passwords on a monthly basis. Or maybe Two-Factor Authentication can be incorporated.
There is of course other information a customer provides that is really valuable to a thief and that is payment information. That could be bank information or a credit or debit card number and this information should be as secure as possible. Payment information should not be stored on a website and tokenization, which will generate random numbers called tokens to take the place of numbers, will make your site secure to help prevent credit card fraud.
Once Your Site Is Secure Keep It Secure
How secure is your site? It is only as good as the last time you checked. Updates to plugins, themes and platforms are issued on a regular basis and should be processed as soon as possible. Some of these updates are to integrate new features but many of these are to close security loopholes.
A website can also be tested for vulnerabilities using some tools that come with the platform. Obviously the more secure the site the less of a chance a thief can break into it. Don’t forget to also scan the entire network as well. The more vigilant you are the more secure your site will be. Nicely Done Sites also offers Maintenance Agreements to our customers so we can handle this for you. You have enough to deal with already, we can help take some of that off of your plate.
PCI Compliance
Since you are accepting forms of payment other than cash you will also need to make your site PCI DSS compliant. This is designed to increase security to a site and to reduce the risk of fraud. Audits are done on a yearly basis and your payment processor can help you with this. If you are outside of PCI compliance you are increasing your chances of a breach and that could put you out of business quickly, wasting all of this time and effort. For a good FAQ of PCI compliance check out this link.
Know What Fraud Looks Like
One of the major problems with ecommerce is that you never get to see the person buying something. You don’t know the person and that makes fraud easy to propagate. Fraudsters tend to want high value items and use chargebacks leaving you out of both the item and the money. Knowing how to spot one of these orders can go a long way towards preventing this. For a good guide check this link.
Are you considering starting an ecommerce site or does yours need a major overhaul? If you are Nicely Done Sites can help you with that. You will work with a number of people to make your ecommerce site possible and it can be frustrating at times. We have set up numerous ecommerce platforms before and we offer an excellent hosting service with an eye towards security. Ecommerce can be a great way to expand your brand and to take your business to the next level and we can help you get there.