9 Cyber Security Steps to Take to Protect Your Ecommerce Business from Cyber Attacks With James Riddle

Do you think it’s only the big business that needs security to protect themselves from cyber attacks? It’s not entirely true. Big companies get targeted for their money, small companies for their security weaknesses. It’s so much easier to create a breach in a small company’s security, that often hackers don’t mind the comparatively low profits.

Here is what you have to do to protect your company’s data.

Work with reliable hosting and e-commerce platform

Security starts with picking the right platforms to work with. Minor, less known hostings can be cheaper, but some of them may leave a breach point open for hackers.

Check and double check a hosting company and e-commerce platform you’re working with to ensure they’re the reliable type.

Some WordPress plugins may have potential security weaknesses as well. Check everything you can about a plugin or a theme you want to install before integrating it in your website.

Introduce HTTPS

Are you conducting payments at your website? Then you need a safe connection for your customers.

Only work with HTTPS if you are taking users’ sensitive data. This ensures that hackers can’t infiltrate and steal users’ banking information.

Use a third-party payment processor

Storing users’ banking information on your website is never an option unless you can afford an IT team to take care of security. If you own a small business that doesn’t have a budget for that, outsource the security job to another company.

Use a third-party payment system to take care of the transactions. This makes it safer for your customers and signals you’re worth their trust.

Create strong passwords

A strong password policy is essential for cybersecurity. Many users are still using “1234567” password or the like. Make sure you don’t transfer this behaviour into your company’s policies as this can end badly.

Software that tries to brute force a password is very accessible these days. If a password is a date or a combination of words, it can get hacked in under a day. If it’s a “1234567” password, it will get hacked in seconds. A 16-digit random password will keep the hackers guessing for months on end.

Create passwords that are long and impenetrable by a machine or an intelligent guess. Include capital letters, symbols, and numbers to make it even safer.

Change passwords at least once in three months. If you work with a third-party contractor, change the password after they’re with your website. This will ensure access to your website or data doesn’t fall into a criminal’s hands easily.

Introduce captcha

This is a really small step, but it makes your website more secure instantly. Require a captcha for your visitors to log in. It makes sure bots have a harder time accessing the website to brute force it.

Scan for SQL injection

The reason many hackers target small companies is that they are more likely to have a security threat on the website. Hackers can inject a fraudulent SQL into the website from an authentication or contact form and take advantage of your company.

Hire a contractor to make sure your website does not contain potential breach points. When that’s accounted for, conduct constant scans to check if there was a breach.

Update your website

Cybersecurity is an arms race. While hackers come up with new ways to create security breaches, software manufacturers perfect their products to fight them off.

This is why you want to keep your website updated. If you’re using WordPress themes or plugins, the issue is even more pressing.

WordPress is not known for a high level of security, so the least you can do is update the software regularly. Websites with outdated plugins become a prime target for hackers, so don’t be one of them.

Educate employees

Jacob Mciness, the co-founder of Cake HR system, says it’s the job of the company’s HR to prevent security threats. It may seem that it’s only the IT department that takes care of this. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, hackers get into your company’s data by phishing.

The most common case goes like this. An employee gets an email, opens it from a workstation, and exposes the company to a hacker. This is why forming a sound policy and articulating the basic rules of email safety is key for cybersecurity.

Handle offboarding well

Most employees leave with some kind of sensitive information about your company. It can be a password or knowledge about your internal workflow. Make sure you handle the offboarding procedure well to prevent potential security breaches from leaving employees.

Another HR job that can minimize threats from former coworkers is ensuring the leaving employees don’t have a feud with the company. If they do, they may be tempted to create a problem for you just in spite.

The bottom line

Taking care of cybersecurity is the job of the whole company. HR and IT departments have to collaborate and keep up with the latest policies in the industry.

Take these nine tips into consideration, and you’re off to a great start.

Bio: James Riddle is a multi-topic writer at WhenIPost.com passionate about new technologies, marketing trends and branding strategies. He is always seeking to discover new ways for personal and professional growth and is convinced that it’s always important to broaden horizons. That`s why James develops and improves his skills throughout the writing process to help and inspire people. 

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