Ecommerce security – how to protect your business from cyber threats

How to protect your business from cyber security threats | 4 minute read

Thanks to digital technology, there are now more opportunities than ever before when it comes to buying and selling online. Allowing customers to shop 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ecommerce businesses are thriving, especially as more people are choosing to shop online in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But, with so many businesses operating online, there is a greater risk of businesses having to protect themselves from cyber threats!

Storing large amounts of personal and financial data, ecommerce businesses are a prime target for cyber-attacks. And, whatever the size of your business, a security breach can be extremely costly – both in terms of data loss and the impact on customer trust.

Cyber threats are constantly evolving, with attackers finding new vulnerabilities to exploit So it’s vital that ecommerce businesses stay one step ahead and are aware of ecommerce security practices.

What is ecommerce security?

Ecommerce security is the measures ecommerce stores can take to protect their business and their customers against ecommerce cyber security threats.

The main ecommerce security threats include:

• Phishing
• Malware and ransomware
• SQL injection
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• E-skimming

How to protect your business from cyber threats 

Here’s our guide to protecting your business from cyber security threats.

Make security a top priority

Security should always be a top priority in any workplace and preventing cyber-attacks should be taken extremely seriously.

Implementing cybersecurity solutions not only deters cyber attackers but they also prevent them from taking an interest in your business.

Educate staff on cyber security

In order to prevent and tackle cyber security concerns, it’s important that your workforce understand what they are and how they can be prevented. With this in mind, you should provide regular, updated cyber security training to all of your staff.

All personnel should also be fully trained to detect the latest phishing attacks.

Be aware of phishing attacks

Being aware of the tell-tale signs of attempted phishing attacks can help ensure you don’t fall into the trap.

Remember:

• Never click on links in suspicious emails
• Never provide any personal information unless you have confirmed the recipient genuine
• Never share your password – no genuine company will ask you to do this via email
• Don’t download any attachments you weren’t expecting
• Check the domain of the sender as well as any URLs contained in the email

Encrypt and backup data

Encrypting and backing up data is more important than ever before as it not only detects, stops and prevents attacks from occurring but, in the event your business is targeted by a cyber-attack, it also means that you will be able to recover any of the data that you lose.

Only store the data you need

Only store the customer data you need to conduct your business – this is not only important  for security, but also to ensure you are fully compliant with regulations such as GDPR. It’s also important to keep customer data separate from other information.

Find out more about data handling for ecommerce here.

Use strong, unique passwords

It might sound obvious, but ensuring your team and your customers have strong, unique passwords in place can make a huge difference to the security of your site. 37% of credential theft breaches are the result of stolen or weak credentials.

Best practices for setting passwords include:

• Passwords should be at least 8 characters, with both upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Never share passwords!
• Never use the same password for two different sites
• Avoid sharing information that you’ve used as security questions.

Switch to secure HTTPS hosting

HTTPS hosting requires an SSL certification. This will ensure that your website is as secure as possible. Switching to HTTPS is also beneficial for your marketing and SEO efforts – Google penalises websites that are HTTP rather than HTTPS.

Conduct regular audits

Carrying out regular security audits will help you identify any gaps in your security and address them before they cause an issue.

Keep your site up to date

If your business is responsible for implementing updates, bug fixes, and security patches to the ecommerce platform, make sure you carry out any updates as soon as they are made available. Failing to do so could leave you vulnerable to new attacks.

Invest in the latest technology

 There’s a whole host of technology that has been expertly developed to help fight against cyber security threats that will defend servers, computers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks.

The global cyber threat continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with more data breaches than ever before! With this in mind, it’s important that all sectors, particularly ecommerce businesses, protect themselves.

Speak to an eCommerce accountant

Speak to a specialist eCommerce accountant to help ensure your financial data is protected from security threats.

Get in touch! 

Here at Unicorn Accounting, our team of specialist e-commerce accountants is happy to chat about all of your eCommerce accounting needs including how to accept payments online. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s talk and maximise the growth of your e-commerce store.

Related articles

• Ecommerce due diligence – what to do before you acquire a new business
• Do I need ICO for ecommerce? Your guide to data handling
• 5 Steps to GDPR compliance