Are you planning on starting an ecommerce establishment? Have you heard of website share? Are you wondering what it takes to build an impenetrable online business?
First you need to understand what anti-fraud mechanisms are, and their various uses in an ecommerce start up. Anti-fraud mechanisms are practices that you can implement in your online business to deal with potential cyber threats.
In the recent past, online businesses have thrived in an exceptional way. This has translated it to be a sweet spot for cyber criminals. Online transactions have become an integral part of our lives as millions of dollars are transacted daily. The reason for this acceptance is due to the fact that online transactions are seemingly safer and more convenient than traditional payment modes.
Ecommerce has given rise to all sorts of entrepreneurs operating from every corner of the internet dealing with all manner of transactions. In this era, in order to safeguard the integrity of your business and the privacy of your customer’s data, you definitely have to employ the best available practices to control deception in your ecommerce.
For you to counter a risk, you must fully understand the potential threats. It’s paramount for you to also know how the threats work in order to implement the necessary guards.
Ecommerce cyber threats
In any online business, the prime target to fraud is the most delicate information within the ecommerce. This information comprises of credit card numbers and debit card value verification codes. According to a recent survey, this information accounted for up to 20% of exposed data. With such statistics, the cost of a single breach is obviously too high to be ignored.
The governing bodies involved in credit cards put up measures to counter cyber attacks. However, the same bodies do not dictate certain terms and transaction methodologies. This is where vulnerability lies. Before starting any ecommerce, you should assess vulnerability and take the necessary counter measures.
Below is a list of potential cyber threats that you may come across in your online dealings.
- Bot Attacks
Bots account for a huge percentage of reported cyber attacks. Malicious bots are very dangerous, and can harm your business in more than one way. Bots can mess up your sites analytics, login illegitimately, and also have an influence in your sites SEO. Other malicious bots are capable of making fraudulent purchases. Be on the look out for bots!
- SQL Hacks
This threat is imminent if you are using an SQL database. In this occasion, the attacker adds malicious SQL statements as apparently legitimate SQL inquiry in order to access the database. Sensitive information stored there thus becomes exposed.
- Phishing
This is a major ecommerce threat that exists today and should be thoroughly addressed in your anti-fraud strategies. In phishing, the attacker poses as legitimate email and website share platforms that capture user information. These fraudulent interactions sometimes are used to install malware that store information such as keystrokes to gain unauthorized access.
Now that you have a glimpse of the looming cyber threats ready to pounce on your start up ecommerce, the next step is to take action.
Maintaining a fool proof ecommerce set up is challenging. However, certain best practices can be employed to counter fraud and keep your online store secure. The following strategies should help you at least minimize the instances of cyber attacks.
Best anti-fraud mechanism for your ecommerce
Here is a list of the best practices you can employ to curb cyber attacks;
- Choose a secure ecommerce platform
‘Get the basics right and the rest will fall in place’. For you to have a worry free ecommerce campaign, first make sure that the basics are at their best. Ensure that you have a secure platform before taking any other step.
Today, there are many open source ecommerce platforms available. If you are not into open source, there exist proprietary alternatives for you. Majority of ecommerce use WordPress woo-ecommerce or Magento as they are highly secure.
Whichever platform you decide to use, always ensure that your server is PCI compliant. Apart from that always ensure that you are running the latest software. Patch up your software every time a new update becomes available.
- Don’t store sensitive data
This statement may sound contradictory, but it’s a one rule that you have to live by for a secure ecommerce. Ecommerce involves loads of sensitive customer information. This being the case, you should never at any time a lot of this information. Information such as credit card numbers, card verification value and cards expiry dates should never be stored.
PCI actually forbids the storage of huge amounts of sensitive data. You can take out old records and update new records to reduce the information stored. It’s always wise to consider that the risk of breach is overweighed by the convenience of customers at check out.
- Card and address verification system
In order to minimize incidences of fraudulent charges, it’s important that you create AVS and CVV for credit card transactions.
- Security layering
One layer of security in an online business is never enough. What you ought to do is to create a multi layered security system. To begin with, ensure that you have put up firewalls. This creates a barrier before the hackers can get into your network and access delicate information.
Next you have to create an extra layer of security to the website and the numerous applications associated with your site. This creates an ecommerce setting free from application-level attacks like SQL hacks.
- Alert systems for suspicious activity
Set up an alert system for activity that seems suspicious or numerous activities coming from the same IP address. Also create an alert for multiple purchases made by the same person using different credit cards. You should also be on the look out for orders where the name of the recipient is different from the name existing on the credit card.
- Use strong passwords
The responsibility of security majorly lies on the retailer on the back end. However, you can help customers protect themselves by making it mandatory for them to create strong password. A strong password should be long and include letters, symbols and numerals. Long and complex passwords are a sure way to keep off hackers from accessing the site from the front end.
If you follow the guidelines discussed above, you will be sure to have a secure and a fraud proof ecommerce.
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