Magento store security - how to protect yourself from hacking attacks?

When it comes to the development of an e-commerce business, it is not only important what technologies you use, but also how you keep them safe. For this reason, one of the key tasks while running an online store is to take essential security measures. In the following article, we describe the basics that you should learn in order to best protect your Magento store.

Securing your store on Magento – what should you do to ensure business continuity?

A store on Magento is a solution that provides powerful sales opportunities. Unfortunately, like any other online business, it is exposed to external attacks. Attacks that may aim to encrypt your server, steal customer data, or even attempt to hack in-store transactions.

For this reason, you need a well-thought-out defense system that provides you with the highest possible level of security. What do you need to pay special attention to?

Here are the things you should take care of to make your Magento store secure:

• SSL certificate – at the moment it is the basis of every self-respecting website. With the right certificate you introduce an additional level of security to your store by encrypting the connection between the customer’s browser and your system. This makes it much harder for cyber criminals to hack the data passed back and forth,
• regular updates – official updates released by Adobe for Magento include not only solutions to improve the performance of the entire system, but also patches for previously detected bugs. That’s why, when running an online store, you should take care of regular updates of both the Magento engine and all the modules cooperating with it. The update also applies to other systems integrated with your store – PIM, ERP, automation tools etc.,
• unique url of admin panel – In Magento you can change the path to the admin panel into any script of your choice. This way, for example, instead of the path domainofyourstore.com/admin you can create something like domainofyourstore.com/p4n3l. This way cyber criminals will not be able to use a standard URL to force their way into your backend,

• unique admin login – what login does the administrator of your store have? Is it by any chance the word admin? If so, one way to improve security is to have unique names assigned to all accounts with the highest access level. This (along with the changed URL of the admin panel we wrote about above) will make password cracking and unauthorized access much more difficult. After all, in addition to the password, cyber criminals will also have to guess the login,

• strong access password – the third element related to logging into the admin panel is a strong password. What kind of password is that? Preferably one that consists of many elements – numbers, letters, special characters. It is much better to use something like fjs7$@o0$AMps^2 than the name of your favorite pet. Remember that a very popular technique of hacking into accounts are so-called dictionary attacks, which is an attempt to guess the password by typing hundreds of thousands of the most popular words. A random string of different characters makes it almost certain that it will not be found in any illegal dictionary circulating in the dark corners of the Internet,

• CAPTCHA login – we know that sometimes having to type in a CAPTCHA – a string of characters generated for a specific login session – is annoying, but this ensures that you are even better protected against possible external attacks. Why? If only because the mentioned earlier dictionary attacks are carried out with the help of special bots. Bots that cannot yet read the CAPTCHA code, which means that using this element will protect you even better against hacking,
• appropriate file permissions – changes to Magento files on the server may have serious consequences. Therefore, it is a good practice to limit access to them as much as possible, including to administrators. For maximum possible protection you should change permissions for the most important directories and files on the server to “read only”, which will prevent their modification,
• use proven modules – modules for Magento allow you to add many new features to your store. However, make sure they come from a verified source and are regularly updated by the developers. Installing a module found on a suspicious site may cause that along with a new option for a client, dangerous code will also work in your store,
• regular backup – you can guard your Magento store like the best fortress. You can prepare for a million dangerous situations. However, you cannot prepare for everything. That’s why a regular backup of your store is the basis of your e-commerce business. Placed in a secure location, it will allow you to recover all data, restore your store and continue selling in case all other safeguards fail.

Magento store security – how to check if my store is properly protected?

Taking care of the security of your Magento store is an extremely challenging task. As a result, you should not be left alone with it. If you want to make sure that your business will be protected in the right way, take advantage of the opportunities offered by a good e-commerce agency.

Every major e-commerce agency has in its offer, among others, a security audit, thanks to which you will find out whether your store is properly protected. Ordering such an audit will allow you to learn about all the strengths and weaknesses of your store, as well as provide a complete list of changes that you need to implement for even better protection.

While taking care of a high level of security, you should also establish cooperation with an agency in the matter of regular Magento store support. This will give you a team of experienced developers and testers, thanks to which you will be able to implement new solutions to protect your business more effectively against external threats.

 

Not sure if your Magento store is secure? Get a free consultation to find out how to check it.