We have seen a huge growth in the ecommerce industry in the last two decades. Among all the ecommerce development platforms, Magento is most applauded from the online merchants and have also seen rapid growth too. However, there is a dark side as well. The ecommerce stores are also witnessing attacks from hackers. The biggest reason behind these cyber-attacks is related to the set-up, management, and security of the websites.
Internet fraud has become ubiquitous, and that’s why the customers do not always trust every second online store to make a purchase. Even the online business owners are at risk of being targeted by malicious customers, which can result in loss due to credit card chargebacks & refunds claimed by the customers pretending to have never received their orders. So what are the steps that you can take to protect your Magento store? In this article, we have come up with 11 important security tips to protect your Magento store from attackers.
Magento Security Checklist To Keep Your eCommerce Store Safe
1. Update The Software
There are numerous reasons to choose Magento for your online ecommerce. Among which the framework of this platform is utmost. It makes the development & maintenance of an ecommerce store simple with scalability. In terms of extensions, Magento offers the most number of extensions in comparison to other ecommerce platforms.
But if you want to ensure the security of your Magento ecommerce store, then you must use the latest version of Magento whether it is Magento Open Source or Magento Commerce. A huge number of sites got hacked just because they don’t use the latest version of the platform they are operating in. Hence, upgrade your Magento version to the latest available one.
Also Read: Magento Commerce vs Magento Open-Source Comparison
2. Create A Custom Admin Path
Most hackers initiate automated strategies that find for standard configurations and then brutally attack username & password combinations. Hence, you must create a custom admin path. A simple change like from yourwebsite.com/index.php/admin to yourwebsite.com/store/’something-else’ will make a bit harder for the hackers to attack.
3. Malware
Malware, in simple words, is a software which is designed to intentionally cause damage to a computer system, network, service, or a website. The hackers use it for stealing customers personal information, credit card data, and much more. While some malware is easy to identify by a scan, some are well hidden to detect using the most vigilant web admins. Hence, you must take regular checks using an advance malware detection software.
4. Monitoring File Changes
If you found some new files, changes in the files or the files are getting deleted, then this is the first sign of attack. As we are so involved in the business, we may even don’t notice the changes. Hence, it is better to hire a Magento development company like us to maintain your store. Also, using advanced software to detect any changes on the website is absolutely recommended.
5. Manage The Users
It is also applicable to those Magento ecommerce stores which have multiple ecommerce logins. For this purpose, there should be unique credentials of each user. You can also do it by assigning proper permissions to the users. For e.g. you can grant a temporary escalated privilege to any particular user. And when the user completes that task, you can reduce the privilege. Do not allow the sharing of accounts and always in knowledge which user is doing what task on your website. You have to track the users with the data collected on your website.
6. Disable Directory Indexing
It is difficult for the attackers to access the core files of Magento due to the directory indexing. Just like the strategy of adding a custom path, if you make the directory indexing a lot difficult for the hackers to access, the website will be safe from the attacks.
7. Secure Admin RSS Feeds
RSS feeds is one of the best features of Magento. It is an XML-based data format used for distributing information to the users. With this data, the customer will subscribe to your ecommerce store for getting new updates about products or deals. There are RSS feeds to the site admins as well, by which the admin can check new orders, stock availability, & product reviews.
Magento uses a simple authentication box with fields of username & password for preventing hacking. The credentials are similar to the Magento admin pages. After login, Magento will display all the details admin wants to check. If you are using complex username & password then it will increase the security from the brutal attacks of hackers.
8. Magento Extension Security
You can find a lot of extensions for managing & operating your ecommerce store efficiently. These extensions will not only enhance the core functionality of the website but will also increase the security of the website. However, you have check whether the chosen extension is actively developed with regular updates. Also, the extension must be available for download on the legitimate sources. Better to validate the source before downloading the extension. We can provide you better assistance for making the functioning easier.
9. Check Unprotected Credit Card Holder Data
Generally, in the ecommerce stores, the domains are set up for handling the online transactions safely. This is carried out by integrating a safe & reputed payment method. However, as the credit card data of users is highly valuable for the attackers, many ecommerce stores fall victim to payment cardholder data theft.
The attacks generally involve unusual system behaviour & malware. These all need to consider for defence. In case, the attacker manages to get into the website and extracted the transaction data, then they will store in a file within the site. They will use this file to harvest data in the long-run. Hence, a regular scan of the file system will keep you protected from the unprotected credit cardholders.
10. Use A Firewall
As per research, performed in the span of a decade, nearly 95% of the ecommerce stores have been a victim of 3 major threats:
- SQL Injection
- Application Vulnerability Exploits
- Injected Code
If you have been managing the WAF then it will be helpful in preventing the attacks on your ecommerce store. It can provide your website with virtual patching whenever a zero-day vulnerability is released.
11. Get Security Maintenance
Last but not least, hiring expert Magento developers from the top-notch Magento development company like us will help you in maintaining your ecommerce store with utmost security, best speed, and regular updates. Regardless of your industry niche, our Magento developers can help you with the right help. We take a complete guarantee of our services and ensure to provide nothing less than the best.
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