Customers expect you to protect their data
Online retailers deal with customer data on a daily basis. Your customers trust you and expect the highest levels of security. But just as online retail is growing at a fantastic pace, cyber crime is increasing also.
Cyber crime is estimated to cost the UK some £27bn each year and businesses are the biggest victims carrying some £21bn of that cost. It isn’t just the big players that are targets for hackers and cyber criminals – according to recent research by PwC, 87% of small businesses had a security breach in the last year.
“What this shows you is that small organisations are the people in the crosshairs and they’re getting repeat breaches, with a number of them getting targeted again and again,” said Andrew Miller, partner at PwC.
“The cost of those breaches is going up as well with the incidences themselves costing significantly more, not just to clean up, but the impact on their brand and the disruption to their business,” he added.
So how do you make sure that your ecommerce business is properly protected?
Use SSL certificates
SSL or Secure Socket Layer is a security certification that protect data by binding a cryptographic key to details. It ensures that each time a customer makes a transaction, a ‘safe channel’ of data transfer is created. It makes sure than third parties can’t use the encrypted data. Most ecommerce shopping carts support SSL and the certification is bought on a two or three year basis.
Always ensure that you SSL certificates are up-to-date at all times. You might consider moving to Extended Validation SSL certificates as these make it even easier to prove to customers that you are verified.
Regularly scan for malware
Most SSL certificates will scan for malware for you but not all. Find out if you are being regularly scanned and if not make sure you make it happen. There are plenty of free tools out there which will scan your site for hidden malware which could lead to search engine warnings and get you blacklisted.
Maintain your site to the latest version
If you are using a third-party ecommerce platform such as Megento or WordPress, ensure that you keep up with the system updates and ensure that your site is always the latest version. By regularly upgrading your site you know that you are using the best possible system to protect your customers. Outdated sites can be an easy target for hackers.
Use a trusted payment gateway
There are swathes of payment gateways out there which you can use for your ecommerce site. Some of them are more secure than others. When you are initially picking a payment gateway or thinking about changing from your current provider, make sure you find out all about their security features and make sure you trust them.
Provide security information on your site
You should answer your customers’ security questions before they ask them. By openly talking about your security measures you can let them know how seriously you take the issue. You should proudly display any trust marks you can as this will inspire even more confidence in your security and hopefully deter any criminals from targeting your site.
Train all of your team
You might have a team of two, it might be ten but you need to make sure that everybody that works for your business understands the basics of internet security. Rather than fighting malware you should avoid it and educating people is one of the most effective ways of doing this.
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