The demand for more effective security measures is more vital in this digital age. The overarching objective is to safeguard one thing that is e-commerce site information. This is an issue that all firms are concerned about. After all, hackers don’t discriminate; data breaches affect major organizations and small-to-midsize e-commerce sites.
However, the latter suffers most from data calamities between the two because of their high-reward and low-risk nature. Without using any intrusion methods, hackers, directly and indirectly, collect information through persuasion and various other means.
Many departments can manage IT services to protect Ecommerce sites against cyber threats. Versa IT (versa-it.com) is one of them that can manage IT services.
Hackers gather crucial information through employees without their consent that is cyber-crime. To avoid different types of footprinting, do not expose sensitive information about your company as public; it will lead to system and network attacks. They are implementing standard security measures that are almost all free or extremely low cost. Following are six steps to protect your e-commerce site against cyber threats.
Verify your accounts
Hackers work remotely, so a two-step authenticator or verification is standard for preventing cyber threats. Two-step authentication processes require anybody to log into your company email or bank account to supply a one-time pin or code sent to your mobile phone. Ensure that all of your email clients use encrypted communication, and make sure that your email server will not respond to unencrypted requests. If you run your email server, make sure that it will only react to encrypted queries.
If you do not do this, email passwords are passed unencrypted over the network, and users will utilize the same password for their network account as they do for their email. Email is the preferred point of access for a criminal hacker, and implementing email security measures can be done in minutes. If you’re still running your mail server, I will urge you to reconsider.
Backup your data
Files that are stored on the premises should be backed up regularly. If possible, then the backups should be done automatically daily. In this way, any physical issue that happens to your data servers won’t cause an excessive problem for you.
When the data is backed up, organize everything according to levels of importance and confidentiality. For instance, instead of compiling all the files, you can store them according to sensitivity. Cloud data should be used alongside offline data back-ups for additional protection.
Your backups would be safely out of harm in case if you were to experience an attack. The e-commerce sites must back up their files on another server, take physical backups of critical files from there to a DVD, and put that DVD into a fireproof safe.
Using strong and unique passwords
Using strong and unique passwords for all services can help prevent criminal techniques such credential stuffing or brute-forcing, where the criminals get hold of your password from an existing data breach and use that information to log in to your social media accounts, bank accounts, and corporate accounts.
Microsoft includes excellent antivirus software in Windows 10; it’s free and updated with new profiles. It is not necessary to buy any other antivirus software, and this will protect your workstations. Change passwords often, but don’t demand such ludicrously complex passwords that people write them down and stick them to the bottom of their keyboards because they can’t remember them.
Use those devices that change passwords every 60 seconds and use random numbers for confirmation. Forget fingerprint readers and other biometrics that can be easily hacked.
Update access controls
It’s crucial not to forget to update access controls. These involve requirements for usernames, passwords, and login attempts before locking an account. Don’t forget to continuously update your record for separated employees, who should no longer have access to company emails and other charges. Update your software period is a practical step. Of course, cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting your network; it’s about protecting your entire eCommerce site.
Recognizing that even the best defenses can fail, every company should consider purchasing a cyber insurance policy to protect itself from the significant financial losses resulting from a cyber attack. Cyber insurance also provides for and covers the costs of incident response and forensics experts who can quickly help a company recover from an attack should the worst come to pass.
Review your BCP (business continuity plan)
When updating your business continuity plan (BCP), be sure to include your data security measures in it. Compared with larger businesses that tend to have a pretty comprehensive BCP as part of their corporate policy, most e-commerce sites don’t have well-established BCPs. That makes it very critical for the latter to ensure contingencies are in place to protect data in the face of any data threats.
Monitor and secure Wi-Fi usage
Most employees work these days remotely, and having them move out of your office’s secured Wi-Fi environment can be a tad scary. Thankfully, there are ways you can mitigate data breaches over unsecured networks. One way is to use a virtual private network (VPN), which adds a security layer for users’ data as they log onto a network.
Conclusion
Data is our most valuable asset in terms of work security these days. After all, hackers are an invisible enemy that can penetrate any weak link in our security systems; this puts both small and large-scale eCommerce sites and corporations at constant risk of data leaks.
