With the onset of the digital revolution, many people have taken to the Internet to showcase their business and expanding their customer base. People flock to such websites in order to browse new products which they won’t have access to locally.
This creates a self-sustaining ecosystem of supply demand created by buyers and sellers both for their benefit. Small businesses in particular have been able to scale up themselves and fight on a global level with major corporations thanks to the Internet. It is now possible for anyone having access to a computer and an Internet connection to set up a website for their business and sell their products.
However not every person checking out such websites has pure intentions behind it. Such malicious hackers target these websites in order to exploit them. They will try to steal data from the website, take control or simply destroy it for their own gain. Therefore it’s important for business owners to take necessary steps to protect themselves and their business from such attacks.
However compared to other websites such as blogs, e-commerce websites have a big burden to bear if they ever get hacked. As they handle a lot more sensitive information as compared to other websites, the repercussions faced are also of the same magnitude.
When building an e-commerce website, certain guidelines or more precisely, compliances need to be followed. Let’s take a look at them one by one.
Table of contents
Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS):
Having a business website means allowing your customers to shop online conveniently without any hassle. It should act as a one-stop shop for all their needs. That includes having provisions which will allow them to pay online if they want to.
However you cannot just including a payment portal on your website and be done with it. Lax security can cause confidential customer information to be accessed by hackers, which will have a major impact on your website, your business reputation and more importantly your customers.
In order to prevent this, all the major card companies in the world like Visa, Mastercard, American Express etc have come together and presented a compliance checklist which has to be followed by any and all websites who wish to set up a payment gateway on their website. This ensures that the maximum of protection can be delivered to customers when they conduct online transactions.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):
If you make your business available to foreign countries in particular the European Union, you will need to follow a set of guidelines issued in order to safeguard the data of their citizens. This is to ensure that whatever data you collect and use for your business should be known to your customers so that they can make an informed choice regarding it.
It is necessary to use utmost precaution while constructing your website’s security. If not done properly, your website is open to various security threats namely:
Stolen Data:
Hackers can get access to the confidential data stored on your servers which they can later use for their own financial gains.
Phishing:
Fake fraudulent websites resembling your original websites can be made and can be shared amongst your customers. This will result in people sharing their login data or banking information with such fraudsters which can have serious consequences.
Damage to Organisation’s Network:
Hackers can manage to infiltrate your network and execute all sorts of malicious code which will result in disruption in daily activities.
DDoS or Denial of Service:
By the means of a botnet, hackers can send multiple requests to the server at the same time which will eventually crash it.
When you operate a website for your business, you are staking your reputation on the line. Unlike traditional store based businesses, e-commerce websites have a high risk, high reward system. The high risks associated with having such a website are many as opposed to having a physical store.
You have lot to lose apart from money if you are ever under attack. You can lose the years of reputation that you built in your field in an instant. Customers will lose their trust in you and refuse to conduct any further business with you as couldn’t protect their confidential information.
On top of that, your website will lose its status and high ranking among search engines and you might even get blacklisted, depending upon the severity of the attack.
Its important for you as business owner to take every possible precaution you can to avoid this outcome. Make sure to always keep your software updated to the latest versions. This includes your core software as well as any themes or plugins that you might be using.
This is because, developers tend to patch any sort of discrepancies or faults in the code that can be exploited. Make sure that you have an SSL certificate for your website. This helps encrypt any and all communication that takes place between your website and the server.
This prevents hackers from snooping around and capturing data while it is being transmitted. Also have a complacent IT team that is ready at a moment’s notice if your website is ever under attack. Make sure to conduct audit reports at fixed intervals throughout the year so as to spot any weaknesses in your security. This can help minimize the damage and keep you on your toes regarding your website’s security.
Running an e-commerce website can be a challenging task and often times navigating the intricacies of its smooth operation can be a tad bit difficult. People often tend to overlook minor details which can come back to haunt them later.
We hope that through this article, we were able to provide you an in-depth guide on to the importance of having secure protocols for your e-commerce website. By understanding these points, we hope that we were able to provide a fresh perspective and that you will now be moved to take those additional steps that you were stalling for your own website.
