Best Practices for ecommerce Software Security 10 tips to keep your ecommerce site and business secure The security of your ecommerce site and software needs to be a top priority. You are handling all of your customers’ names and addresses not to mention their more sensitive information, like their credit card numbers; which means a security breach can be an online business’s worst nightmare. Implementing these ten software security basics will help keep your business’s and customers’ information secure. Use SSL and Be PCI Compliant Using SSL (secure sockets layer) when transmitting sensitive information has become the standard for handling and transferring sensitive data over the internet. PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of rules and requirements to help ensure that businesses that accept credit cards keep the credit cards users’ information safe and secure. Being PCI compliant and using SSL shows that your business is following the basic standards to keep credit card information private. Regularly Delete Customer Data When handling a large number of customers and processing hundreds of payments it is unnecessary and unsafe to continue to store that sensitive data. Regularly deleting credit card numbers, expiration dates, and old customer data helps reduce the amount of information that could be compromised if there was a data breach. Use Multiple Layers of Security Setting up multiple layers of security on your ecommerce site can help keep it safe. Implementing several different firewalls and using multifactor authentication are just a few of the ways to layer security and deter attacks and hackers. Utilize Firewalls Firewalls are one of the first defenses for your ecommerce site and sensitive data. Using multiple firewalls, working at the same time, helps protect your internal systems and networks from cyberattacks. Use Web Application Firewalls Web application firewalls (WAF) are special types of firewalls meant to protect your web applications. A WAF is more thorough when inspecting web traffic and can be customized to allow or block what you need it to. They are another good layer to add to your site security. Employ a DDoS Protection Service Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection has become increasingly needed based off the growing number of DDoS attacks. DDoS protection services filter the traffic that is coming to your site, turning away bogus visitors and only sending genuine browsers and customers to your site. Install Security Patches Whenever a security patch is released by the maker of the software that you use, you need to download and install it as soon as possible. Security patches are fixes or patches for vulnerable areas in software. Updating your software and installing patches insures you have to most up to date and secure version of your software. Employ a Vulnerability Monitoring Service A vulnerability scanning, monitoring, and testing service scans your web applications code, looking for vulnerabilities and/or changes in the code. If it notices something suspicious or vulnerable, it will inform you so you can have the problem fixed. Use Antivirus Software From consumers to multi-million dollar companies, antivirus software is for and helps everyone. Antivirus software scans files that are stored on your business’s physical server, looking for anything that can be deemed as malicious. Check Into What Protective Measures You Already Have Many different protective measures are included with most web-hosting services. If you are using a web hosting service instead of hosting your own site; check to see if and what protection it includes. Some common ones include encrypted backup and service monitoring response. Clarity Can Help At Clarity, we know how important security is for every ecommerce business. We have helped numerous clients set up multiple layers of security to help keep their customers’ information safe. We would love to help develop an online security strategy for your business. To find learn more about how Clarity can help you keep your customers’ information secure or to schedule a consultation with one of our experts, call or click to contact us today!