eCommerce Website Security: Everything You Need To Know

www.namify.tech

3 min readNov 18, 2019

Running a successful eCommerce business is largely dependant on how secure the website is. Surprisingly though, eCommerce website security is not given as much importance as it should be getting.

With cybercrime on the rise, your customers’ sensitive data such as payment details and personal information should be secure and safe at all times.

To ensure top-level website security, it’s best to weave in all safety measures at the time of setting up your eCommerce website.

What is eCommerce Website Security?

eCommerce website security refers to the principles that guide safe electronic transactions for the buying and selling of goods and services online.

eCommerce websites are a major target for hackers and for imposters, fraudsters, and competitors because eCommerce websites store thousands of user IDs, financial and personal information, product catalog and prices, etc.

To earn and maintain the customers’ trust, your eCommerce company needs to make sure that it has the right level of website security in place.

Common Terminology Related To eCommerce Website Security

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) — Also known as PCI, it’s an industry standard to ensure that credit card information is being transmitted and stored safely online.
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) — ISO is an international body for setting the standard to make sure that products and processes are fit to use. ISO/IEC 27001:2013 is one of their standards for data security for businesses.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and HTTPS authentication — SSL certificate authenticates and encrypts links between networked computers, which allows you to move from HTTP to HTTPS.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA), 2-factor authentication (2FA), & 2-step verification — All three are similar methods that require at least one more method of identity verification for logging in to ensure eCommerce website security.
Distribute Denial of Service (DDoS) — It’s a disruption of the server, network traffic or service by overwhelming it with huge online traffic, blocking customers out of your store.

Importance Of Cybersecurity For Your eCommerce Business

Compliance — To ensure eCommerce website security, your business needs to meet specific standards to be considered in compliance.
Financial solvency — If this is breached, you may have to spend on forensic investigation, credit monitoring, data recovery, etc.
Customer trust — Customer trust is critical to a business and losing it could have a huge impact.

Biggest Security Threats To Your eCommerce Site

Phishing — A common method used by attackers for tricking victims into providing their private information like account numbers, passwords, social security numbers, etc.
Malware and ransomware — Malware is any software that attackers can install on your system. Ransomware is a particular malware that locks you out of your system until you pay the ransom.
SQL injection — If your site stores data in an SQL database, injecting a malicious query into a packaged payload can provide the attacker access to manipulate information.
Cross-site scripting (XSS) — Inserting a malicious code that can expose users of the page to phishing attempts, malware, and more.
E-skimming — Stealing credit card information or personal data from processing pages of card payment options on eCommerce sites.

eCommerce Security Best Practices