7 Best Magento Security Measures to Secure Your Magento Ecommerce Website
Magento security is a topic worthy of great attention. Safe eCommerce websites help you grab and maintain the devotion of your customers. A compromised eCommerce site can lead to catastrophic business effects involving financial and merchandise loss and identity theft for customers, and damage to the reputation of vendors. Here is a simple and quick guide to give a multi-layered approach to keep Magento's security issues under check.
A major chunk of retail sales happens in eCommerce stores. Ecommerce websites face more critical security risks than all other websites thanks to the personal and payment information needed to complete a sale.
Since Magento is the leader of the online retail space, it naturally becomes hackers’ desirable target. You will never regret putting in efforts to enhance Magento security as it will help you scale up your business.
Let’s have a quick dive into some of the Magento statistics before exploring the steps to tackle Magento security issues.
Some Magento Ecommerce Statistics
- Magento CMS powers 12% of all e-commerce websites
- Magento powers 1.2% of the internet (250,00 active sites use Magento among which only 11,000 runs on Magento 2)
- Magento is the most hacked CMS after WordPress
- It is one of the most applauded CMSes for eCommerce
Are you wondering “is Magento secure”? Be informed that Magento or any other eCommerce CMS platforms can pose security threats if you are not careful in stepping up security checks. You can have a promisingly secured Magento site by making your site a less attractive target to hackers.
You can keep all Magento security issues under control by following a set of Magento security checks and some crucial Magento security best practices.
Magento Security Best Practices
1. Upgrade Magento to the Newest Version
You need to upgrade your Magento store to the latest version. These updates make your website capable of handling critical vulnerabilities. Even though your store is on Magento 2, you need to upgrade it to the news release that includes a number of patches and security precautions, and several bug fixes. All these are useful for your store in staying resilient to hackers and breaches. This is a very fine Magento security checker.
An expert Magento developer will be able to help your Magento eCommerce store to be upgraded to the latest version.
2. Choose the Best Hosting Provider
Security, value for money, and ease of setup play an important role in choosing a hosting provider for your Magento store. Among these 3 elements, give security the utmost significance.
Magento requires an unusually potent infrastructure to operate without any disruptions. This is especially so if you are using Magento 2.0.x and above iterations.
When seeking to opt for the perfect Magento hosting provider, check if the following elements are included in their package.
· Dedicated firewalls
· SSL certificate
· Two-factor authentication
· IP whitelisting
This is an important factor in terms of Magento security checks.
3. Opt for the Best Payment Methods
Choosing a trustworthy and error-free payment gateway is an important aspect for any kind of eCommerce store. Customers value every stage of their customer journey and having an impeccable check-out manipulation is of great value. A proper payment gateway is crucial to assure a superior check-out experience for both companies and clients.
Merchants who process credit cards and store cardholder information should adhere to PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). PCI compliance ensures the protection of customers’ payment card information. About 90% of the Magento security issues can be resolved with this. The standard covers security requirements that include policies and procedures, software design, and network architecture. Merchants who do not conform to this can expect huge penalties.
Integrating the safest and resilient payment gateway acts as a potent Magento security checker.
4. Required Files And Folders Permission
The Magento website owner should have full control (read/write/execute) of all files and directories. It should follow the Magento standard for the files and folder permission. Refrain from giving 777 permissions to all files. It is the default Magento file permissions when you install Magento extension. Therefore, 777 is the most defenceless file permission and it invites security glitches.
Setting correct file permissions offers an additional blanket of protection to your Magento website. It is also a boundless boost to the current security measures active on your website. Therefore, follow the correct pattern of files and folders permission to enhance Magento security.
5. Store Protection For Admin & Customers Login
Stepping up the security of your Magento store login pages is another way of boosting Magento security. Never take it lite as an insecure login page is the same as keeping the front door of your house unlocked.
Keep the following pointers in mind:
- Create a super-strong, eight-character-long password that is a combination of letters, numbers & symbols.
- Set limits for login attempts to secure your admin panel or customer login details.
- Maintain strict roles and permissions for managing multiple admin logins. Ideally, only one Super Admin should have access to all the information.
- Enable Captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) for both Admin and Customers. You can choose either Magento default captcha or Google captcha.
6. Avoid Unreliable Extensions
Third-party Magento extensions are life-savers when you badly want to integrate a unique feature to your Magento website. But if you install extensions from unreliable sources, you are inviting hacks.
It’s wise to purchase extensions from Magento Marketplace. You should see to it that the extensions you buy are updated based on the Magento version. Missing security patches and vulnerabilities from add-on modules, plugins, templates, and extensions is a crucial cause for eCommerce site hacking. Therefore, avoiding unreliable extensions is a great way to reduce Magento security issues.
7. Implement A Firewall For Your Site
A firewall protects what is inside a network from the outside. It is imperative for eCommerce websites to have firewall protection as they have a lot of inbound traffic. This helps them to have a cool protection against any malicious entry.
It gives you insights into suspicious activity, if any, by helping you analyse the traffic. It acts like a wall and shields your website by allowing or disallowing traffic, based on what you’ve authorized.
Wrapping Up
The post-pandemic era has further increased online shopping. Therefore, it is your duty as a responsible ecommerce vendor to assure maximum security to your customers. They shop from your Magento store with the confidence that their confidential data is secure with you. Never breaking their trust will get you more loyal customers and business growth.
Follow the Magento security best practices discussed in this blog. If implementing them is not your cup of tea, or if you find any difficulty hire a seasoned Magento developer like GetMySites .