How to Make your Magento Ecommerce Website Secure

Magento, one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, has changed the dynamics of online shopping. In fact, it has become the force to reckon with in the e-commerce fraternity. But, the competence of Magento comes with a cost. Due to its immense popularity, Magento usually comes under the attack of hackers and crooks who steal your customers’ information and financial details. Although the software comes with an inbuilt security feature, there is always a risk of security breaches and possible hacks.

Maintaining Magento e-commerce Website security is a huge responsibility for store owners as it directly affects the reputation of their businesses. Any inadequacy in hosting infrastructure will have a considerable impact on the performance of the Magento e-store. Using the latest and upgraded version of security software is highly recommended. There are ways to bulletproof the security of your Magento eCommerce Website. Follow these top ways to make your Magento store more secure:

• Use the Latest Magento Version: In the modern times where people are more into online shopping, the security risks have also seen a rise. Therefore, it has become ever more crucial to use the updated version of Magento. Magento consistently gets updated at a good pace and so it is advisable to use the latest stable version of Magento as it comes with added features to combat the latest discovered security breach and other issues. Once a stable version is released, test it and get it uploaded.

• Two-Factor Authentication: The purpose of having two-factor authentication extensions is to ensure that only trusted device can access your Magento backend by using a smartphone app. This kind of enhanced security comes with a random security code along with a unique username and password. This security code is generated after every 30 seconds on a smartphone app that can be availed from Magento Connect Marketplace. The two-factor authentication makes it impossible for the hacker or violator to access you Magento eCommerce site.

• Setting Custom Path for Admin Panel: Usually, using the same admin path for a long time makes it easy for hackers to access your admin page and start guessing your password. There are Softwares that can easily tap your username and password combinations available in the market, making the job easy for hackers. It is always better to set a custom path for your admin panel. You can prevent this by setting your admin with a customized term. However, be careful while changing the path and do not, even by mistake, change the Admin Base URL setting or else it will crash your Magento. Further, to strengthen your Magento, prefer choosing a long and complex admin password. Though the chances of tracking your customized admin path are less, it is always better to be prepared.

• Use Secure FTP: Intercepting the FTP password of your Magento eCommerce store is the easiest thing to do. Therefore, it is always advisable to use secure FTP passwords and SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) which uses a private key file for decryption or authenticating a user. A secure FTP increases the security level of your e-store. Especially in companies, where the Magento e-store is accessed by many developers and designers, it becomes even more necessary to limit the unsecured FTP access and use a secure FTP.

• Disable Directory Indexing: Disabling a hacker from viewing all the files and folders in your Magento website will prevent him from knowing all the details, making your website less vulnerable to theft.  For this, disable the directory index on your website. Doing so will help to strengthen the security of your website and prevent the hackers from accessing the information.

• Eliminating Email Loopholes: Generally, expert hackers try to break-in your Magento e-store through social engineering. It so happens that Hackers fetch the name and email Id of an eCommerce website listed on social networking sites like LinkedIn. Once they get the details, they will start hacking your e-store and go to the Magento admin panel and ask to reset the password. As soon as they get the new password, your Magento e-store will be in total control of the hackers. To avoid this, make sure your e-mail ID for Magento is not known publically.  Avoid using your standard email address for your admin login. To eliminate the email loopholes, use an email address that has not been shared in public. Also, use a highly complex password as an extra safeguard.

• Invest in a Sound Hosting Plan: When starting a new Magento e-store, people usually prefer to use cheapest shared hosting to keep costs down. But, investing in shared hosting means compromising on Magento security as well as giving way to malevolent attacks on other sites on your shared server. On the other hand, dedicated hosting might be a sound option but it may not be sufficient for your requirements. Also restricting your website on a single server may limit your resources. The best solution for this is to invest in a sound hosting plan.  There are many hosting available like Cloud hosting, Virtual Private Server hosting and Dedicated Server hosting, exclusively for your Magento eCommerce website. In fact, a good web hosting company will provide Web application firewall to prevent MySQL injection.

• Get a Magento security review done: Magento software developers may be good at coding but are not necessarily experts at security. There are only few who know the complexities of Magento site security. Therefore, is it better to get your website analyzed for any loopholes or security breach. Getting a Magento security reviewed from professionals once in a year helps to strengthen the security measures of your Magento website. These professional security reviewers will perform web application security tests on the website to detect any possible threat or flaws.

• Be wise with your Magento password: Password is the secret key to access your Magento e-store. Therefore, it is important to give special attention while deciding a password for your e-store and safeguard it from being vulnerable. It should be 100% unique. It is, therefore, advisable to create complex password – which is long and has a mix of upper and lower case alphabets, special characters and numbers. Remember, never use your Magento passwords anywhere and keep it different from the rest of the passwords. Also, avoid saving your Magento password on your computer or laptop for an added level of security.

• Have an Active Backup Plan: While it is great to take necessary measures to safeguard the security of your Magento e-store, it is equally important to back-up your store to avoid any loss of data in case of any uninvited disaster. It is better to have an active backup plan installed to safeguard all your Magento files and data on a regular basis. It is always wise to check with your hosting provider if it has a backup strategy. Although, this is a great habit, don’t forget to verify the process by testing your backups regularly. Also, make sure you store the backup data on a different server, other than your Magento e-store hosting.

• Change the Login Details of Magento Admin if you share the Details with the third party: Make a habit to change the password before and after working with third party developers. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to take help from third party Magento developers. In this case, your Magento admin gets vulnerable. To avoid this situation, it is better to change the credentials of the site before granting the access to the third party. Once the work is done, reset the login details of the Magento admin and FTP password.

Why take any chance! While there is no such thing as 100% un-hackable eCommerce site, it is always better to be sensitive and avoid any untoward threats and hacks. Securing your Magento eCommerce site with bulletproof security measures will decrease the number of hacks and even build the trust of customers on your website.

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