Investing in cybersecurity to protect your e-commerce business

Cyber attacks can lead to a loss in revenue, data and the viability of your business. As such, it’s crucial that you make sure you protect your e-commerce assets.

Whilst there is no full proof way to protect your business from online attacks, increasing your level of cybersecurity will help increase your and your customers peace of mind.

Why is cybersecurity important?

E-commerce security is crucial for any person or business, as it safeguards against many types of data theft. This in turn protects a small business from losing time, money and resources. Remember, as a business owner you’re not just responsible for your personal information, but that of your staff and customers too. 

According to research carried out by Zippa, 30,000 websites are hacked daily, with one attack happening every 39 seconds. At least 60% of organisations have experienced at least one cyberattack.

By practising good cyber security you’re also increasing your credibility as a business. Consumers may be more confident in making a purchase from your e-commerce store if you can demonstrate you have adequate cybersecurity measures in place.

What constitutes good cybersecurity?

Have policies in place

Policies and procedures are the bedrock of any healthy business. Ensuring your team is well versed in you cyber security policy can greatly limit your businesses’ exposure to malicious activity.

The policy should outline behavioural and technical guidelines for all employees to reduce risk. This is especially relevant amid the rise in working from home.

However, it is also important to be aware that your cybersecurity policy or procedure should never be a static document. It should be regularly revaluated updated to reflect your businesses practices.

Practising sensible password protection

Despite being a key part of cybersecurity, it’s easy to forget about decent password protection. We recommend covering this in your security policies.

It’s generally accepted that you should never reveal your password to others, write them down where they’re easily acceptable or use the same password for different accounts. Business passwords should also be changed every three months.

Every password should have an upper and lower case, special character, and at least one number. If in doubt, resort to a mix of length and special characters. Known as passphrases, full sentence passwords increase security because it takes a computer longer to crack them.

For example, according to a password cracking website, the phrase: “IWantA_Strong_Pass_Word99” would take a computer around 4 billion years to crack.

Investing in a secure platform

The platform you use can also greatly impact your cyber security. Most e-commerce platforms come with security features built in, which helps reduce the risk of attacks.

Depending on what stage of your ecommerce journey you’re at will inform what type of security you need. If you’ve yet to choose a platform, or you want to upgrade then it’s worth comparing what’s out there. Some security measures featured in popular e-commerce platforms include, multi-factor user authentication (MFA), card holder data protection and data encryption.

At the end of the day, in e-commerce, trust is everything. By investing in a secure platform, you give you and your customers peace of mind, which will help build a solid business foundation.

Avoiding scams

Scammers are getting craftier, so it’s understandable that fraudsters may be harder to catch. The most common type of online scam is called ‘phishing’. In which scammers attempt to trick consumers and business into giving up personal information.

If in doubt, don’t give out any information. Only share business or personal details with those you trust. This way, you reduce the chances of having your details stolen and your business compromised.

Using VPNs and Firewalls

When it comes to e-commerce security, the more layers of protection you have the better. Firewalls and VPNs are just a couple of layers of protection you can use to boost your businesses security.

Firewalls: A firewall is a network security device that monitors traffic to or from your network. Firewalls focus on blocking malware and application layer attacks.

VPNs: A VPN stands for virtual private network and allows a user to encrypt their internet traffic whilst also disguising your online identity. Doing so allows a person to access the internet without fear of having their information stolen.

In a time where cyber attacks are becoming more frequent, it’s imperative that you follow good cybersecurity protocols to protect your business assets and your customer’s information. Once your security is established it should be regularly reviewed and approved upon.

It’s about creating a dependable, safe service that your customers will keep coming back to.