Fully Protecting WordPress Ecommerce Websites: Improving Security and Earning Customer Trust

When you build an e-commerce website using WordPress tools, have you ever understood that protecting your e-commerce website is vital for your business and your customers.

As an e-commerce website owner, you may often hear customers complaining about slow loading websites and having to deal with hackers trying to commit fraud. Even a small red flag can scare shoppers away. Failure to meet basic needs and ensure consumer safety will make it difficult for your website to survive in a competitive e-commerce environment.

Prioritize the development of appropriateNetwork Security StrategyAnd utilize the methods available to ensure that everyone who visits your WordPress eCommerce site can add goods or services to their cart and complete transactions with peace of mind. Utilize the various WordPress security plugins and tools such as Wordfence Security, Sucuri Security, and iThemes Security to help you monitor and secure your site. Make sure your WordPress core, themes and plugins are always up-to-date to prevent potential vulnerabilities from being exploited.

Security measures to be taken by website owners

Website owners should take the following steps to protect their websites from potential threats:

1. Choosing a secure e-commerce solution

Protecting your e-commerce site is critical to building trust with your customers and keeping your data safe. Choosing a secure ecommerce platform to build your site on can solve many potential problems. If you are not confident in your current platform, consider migrating to a more secure one. E-commerce platforms should have the best protection tools to monitor your site's security and notify you in the event of a breach. For example.Support Genix - WordPress The Support Tickets plugin is a great option. Secure e-commerce platforms should allow for the addition of SSL certificates.PCI security standards require e-commerce sites to comply and obtain an SSL certificate. This certificate encrypts the data between the website and the visitor's browser, similar to a virtual private network.

2. Utilization of firewalls

WAF (Web Application Firewall) is one of the security measures that many e-commerce website owners underutilize. It blocks DDoS attacks, prevents forged requests, limits SQL injection and XSS attacks.

3. Secure Payment Gateway

Avoiding sensitive data breaches is critical. Businesses that fail to protect customer data will have a hard time regaining trust. It is best not to collect unnecessary user data. At the payment gateway, shoppers enter their details to confirm their purchase. It is recommended to use an encrypted third-party checkout gateway, which reduces the risk of a data breach and your website does not need to collect customer details.

4. Installation Updates

Hackers usually exploit the vulnerability of not installing updates. Therefore, don't ignore software updates. The platform itself should also regularly improve its stability and performance, including security.

Sometimes, the latest threats are so serious that they force developers to find solutions and introduce patches to protect websites. The more website owners delay installing updates, the higher the risk of becoming a target.

5. Keeping your equipment safe

In addition to updating your website, it's important to stay on top of managing your store's computers or mobile devices. But device security depends on more than just updates.

While most threats come from the Internet, the risk that malware could infect a website through your smartphone or computer cannot be ignored. Use a reliable antivirus tool to keep your device safe from malware.

If you're not sure about network security, you can use a virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your data.

Finally, be careful about clicking on links and downloading attachments. For example, if you come across suspicious URLs or email attachments, you should ignore them even if you have confidence in your antivirus software. The severity of malware is unpredictable, and it's better to err on the side of caution than to regret it later.

6. Backup Data

While data backup is not a direct method of preventing cybersecurity threats, it is an important preventative measure.

Check if the e-commerce platform has a built-in backup solution that automatically backs up data on a regular basis. If this feature is available, enable it and test its reliability. Ensure that the backups are working properly.

Even if you set up multiple layers of security, you still can't absolutely guarantee the security of your website. Having backups as a safety net is a good practice.

7. Using HTTPS Certificates

HTTPS certificate is another security measure that e-commerce websites must have.HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure and unlike HTTP, HTTPS is actually secure and is denoted by the letter S. The HTTPS certificate is a security measure for e-commerce websites.

The protocol is what you see when you click on a website URL on your browser. If the protocol is missing, it is difficult for a website to be considered secure.

Google also penalizes sites that don't include security protocols, so you should consider not only the overall security of your e-commerce site, but also its ranking in search engines.

8. Create unpredictable administrator usernames

Even if you are the only administrator on your e-commerce site, you should create an unpredictable administrator username. This becomes increasingly important with each new account.

As an e-commerce website owner, you can grant access to others by creating an administrator account. Creating unpredictable usernames can add an extra layer of protection to the overall security policy.

Cracking passwords is a problem, but cracking account names is the first step.

Creating a random administrator username is not the only thing you need to do. It is recommended to enable thetwo-factor authentication, especially for users with administrator privileges.

Adding an extra step to access the admin area of a website can be very effective for security. If the administrator needs to receive a confirmation code or email via a smartphone in order to log in, then this is an additional obstacle for hackers.

9. Use passwords wisely

As mentioned in the previous section, using random usernames is a good method, but the importance of passwords should not be underestimated.

If remembering all your passwords becomes too difficult, you can use a password manager (such as 1Password) to store credentials and access them using a master password. Password managers can be used on mobile devices to quickly launch the app and check account passwords on your smartphone.

10. Setting up access roles

E-commerce website owners sometimes neglect to set up access roles for different users. They usually simply grant everyone administrator access and call it a day.

Another thing to keep in mind about customizing access roles is that if someone's trustworthiness can't be guaranteed, they may become disloyal and sabotage the site for personal gain or other reasons.

Keeping track of all the malicious behaviors that have occurred and restoring them can be cumbersome, especially if the malicious activity has been going on for a while. If you have an old backup of your site, you may even need to restore to a previous version.

11. Preventing SQL Injection

SQL injection is a common threat that, if successful, allows hackers to gain unauthorized access to view and modify database records. It is as if the hacker becomes a database administrator.

After discovering a website vulnerability, hackers inject SQL code and execute commands to modify data. This attack is so malicious that it may even steal shoppers' credit card information.

Considering the complexity of this threat, dealing with it is not easy. To prevent SQL injection, back-end code needs to be modified. Developers need to clean up inputs, such as login forms, and are advised to detect and remove potentially malicious code elements.

12. Protecting websites from DDoS and DoS attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are one of the most common malicious attacks that website owners may encounter.

In addition to the previously mentioned WAF and other basic security steps, e-commerce sites can also rely on content distribution networks (CDNs) to provide backup servers in case the primary server fails.

Exploring cloud-based DDoS protection solutions is also worthwhile. If attacks become too frequent and difficult to manage with traditional means, seeking specialized DDoS mitigation support is also a good option.

Summary:

Protecting your WordPress e-commerce site is vital to your business and your customers, every step of the way, from choosing a secure e-commerce platform to utilizing firewalls and secure payment gateways. Installing updates and securing devices can prevent hackers from exploiting vulnerabilities. Additionally, backing up data, using HTTPS certificates, creating unpredictable administrator usernames, using passwords wisely, and setting access roles are all effective security measures. Preventing SQL injections and protecting the site from DDoS attacks can further enhance the site's protection. By taking these measures, e-commerce website owners can establish a safe and secure online shopping environment and earn the trust of their customers.