Date: 29 November 2024
Enjoying success within the e-commerce community involves numerous factors. Quality marketing campaigns, targeting the appropriate audience, and adhering to the latest SEO guidelines are all facets of a much larger concept. Still, we need to point out that online security is just as important. Safeguarding your information, and the details of your clients is a variable that should never be overlooked.
What are some of the ways in which you can augment the security of your existing e-commerce portal? We will examine four techniques immediately below.
Mobile proxy in particular is an indispensable tool for digital operations, from app developers who want to ensure their apps run smoothly across continents, to market researchers who need to monitor global pricing strategies. However, many organisations are unable to implement them effectively or draw a line between ethical and questionable usage.
In this article, we help you understand how these tools work, how they are legitimately used in business, and the principles for ethical use.
Virtual Private Services
Many budding e-commerce businesses choose to use a shared host to support their website. While this might be the cheapest option, shared hosting plans can suffer from security vulnerabilities on occasion. It is much better to deploy alternatives such as the VPS hosting IONOS has engineered for professionals. Not only can your site enjoy uptime percentages of over 99.9 per cent, but SSL encryption is included within every plan. Virtual private servers are arguably some of the most practical means to secure your site from the very beginning.
Keeping Up to Date
Another area to address involves recommended software updates. These could involve bug fixes, newer plugins, or even entire site upgrades. Such alerts exist for a reason. Not only are they meant to enhance the end-user experience (UX), but they can be used to address any vulnerabilities that may be present in previous software iterations. When prompted to perform an update, do not hesitate. These are designed for your protection, and for the safety of your clients.
Cloud-Based Benefits
Third-party cloud management platforms are often associated with larger organisations. However, these systems are just as relevant for small- to medium-sized enterprises in the e-commerce sector. The primary benefit is that cloud-based storage provides a level of redundancy if your primary site ceases to function (such as from a DDoS attack). Once you have identified and addressed the problem, you can retrieve all data that was previously stored in the cloud.
Implement 2FA
2FA is an abbreviation for two-factor authentication, and this method has become one of the latest security recommendations for e-commerce businesses. 2FA provides an additional layer of protection when customers are performing certain tasks. Here is a general summary of how this method works:
- A purchase is made
- The customer is sent a one-time password to a secondary device such as smartphone
- This password must then be entered into a browser-based field before the transaction is approved
Two-factor authentication makes it much more difficult (if not entirely impossible) for third parties to execute a fraudulent transaction. Furthermore, these systems will provide your customers with an additional piece of mind. Many point-of-sale (POS) systems offer 2FA as an optional feature, and experts recommend activating this protocol whenever possible.
Final Word
Unfortunately, even the powerful methods outlined above, will not completely guarantee the safety of your e-commerce business. Cyber threats are constantly evolving, and new vulnerabilities can emerge at any time, making it impossible to achieve absolute security. However, these strategies are still essential components of a robust security framework if you hope to mitigate the latest threats as they emerge. By incorporating these measures, you can significantly reduce the risk of data breaches, unauthorized access, and other cyber threats that could compromise your business operations and customer trust. Adopting a proactive stance, which involves continuously monitoring for potential threats, regularly updating security protocols, and staying informed about the latest cybersecurity trends, is the best way to remain prepared for what the future may have in store.
