In today's world, where users' data makes billions of money, it has become difficult to secure the data from cyber-attacks and data breaches. Cybercriminals however never differentiate a large scale or small-scale businesses, but small-scale business needs to be extra careful to avoid any kind security threats as it may cost much and often it will be tough to cope up.

Having said, it has become widespread that the websites are attacked now and then you should follow proper steps to control this data breaches. Different researches from the past revealed that small organizations are prone to more data breaches compared to large scale business.

Moreover, a survey from the Symantec found that small e-commerce businesses are 50% more victimized in cyber-attacks. So, the need of the hour is how do you protect your small e-commerce websites from security threats and hackers? In this article, we will discuss the steps to safeguard your business. 

As we all know, the first things first. The first and foremost steps towards e-commerce business security are to install an SSL certificate. It means that the website URL is HTTPS and is secured. Moreover, when it is a question of higher authenticity, then the EV SSL certificate plays a significant role as it gives you the power of green address bar and organization name in URL.

Why is it essential to have an EV SSL certificate?

EV SSL certificate ultimately assures the website security solutions by encrypting the sensitive digital information, thereby making your website more authenticated and reliable for online transactions - some of the significant benefits of EV SSL certificate.

 An EV SSL certificate offers the highest level of assurance certificate.

• It follows a rigorous and disciplined validation process.

• EV SSL certificate deeply carries out a verification process to check the company is legitimate. 

• EV SSL certificate a green colour address bar along with business name and URL.

• It encrypts confidential online transactions and protects user information.

• EV SSL certificate boosts in company organizational provfits and protects against phishing. 

• EV SSL certificate improves website ranking in Google SERP.

Coming to the point now, below are few points that will help you to protect your e-commerce platform.

1. Provide the best training to your employees:

Training your employees about data security importance and conduct the necessary tutorials on preventing data breaches is a must. Carrying out mock sessions on protecting the users' sensitive information helps the employees to grasp and act accordingly.

2. Access to business computers should only be for authorized employees:

Make sure that the access to the computer which handles the customer's details and transactions is accessible by only a team of authorized employees. The better solution is to create an account for each employee, and this will restrict the usage. Also, you can have a track of all the information on the employee's tasks.

3. Maintain security on mobile devices:

To keep your business confidentiality up to the mark, most of the companies limit the mobile usage inside the working premises, especially in cybersecurity zone to avoid data leakages outside that could lead to website security issues. Also, make it a point that you do not allow the employees to access the official data on their personal phones. This simple step could bring a lot of change and robust protection.

4. Request strong passwords from your users:

Cyber-attacks happen because of the vulnerability and one of them is weak password. Hackers are well trained to break the password through many techniques. 

Make sure the password is a combination of alpha, numerical, and symbols. You can include captcha validation to make sure that the right user is accessing the website. Use the upper and lower case of combinations to make the passwords harder. One of the most advanced technique is the two-way authentication which solves the security issues.

5. Don't store sensitive user data:

All websites usually store all the user information in their databases. However, one best practice is not to store any personal data of the users once they are done with the check-out process.

Users who wish to revisit your website will come back and shop with you by entering the financial information and continue the check out as usual. Furthermore, this will reduce data breach and identity theft.

6. Setup system alerts for suspicious activities:

To set up the tracking software is essential to track the user's behaviour patterns. This will also increase security. 

You should always keep an eye on the e-commerce website who is coming to sign up or log in. Most importantly, it will track the IP address from all the users. All suspicious activities can be tracked and Brute force attacks on a website like XSS or SQL injections.

7. Use tracking numbers for all orders:

All products which are shipped to respective customers should be tracked with the help of tracking code, following the link on all the rules. This is beneficial for identifying good thefts and frauds.

Tracking all your orders helps you to prevent order back fraud, which means a customer may deny that he didn't receive his order despite receiving the order and later demand for cash back.  The customer should give his signature that the order was delivered to him to the billed or shipped address to avoid frauds.

8. Encryption of data:

All the information should be encrypted wherever the data is stored like on a device, cloud technology. It is impossible to decrypt the information without a private key. Once the information is encrypted, it could be decrypted or decoded by the person having a key.

However, small scale businesses should always have encrypted information. You would require a key to activate it and keep the data safe. 

9. Authenticate third-party security controls:

A known fact that often business depends on several third-party vendors for credit card transactions, payrolls, and security issues. Before seeking a third party for these functionalities, it is a safe option to have a contract with them to safeguard your company details and data to avoid any cyber-attacks.  Henceforth, they are responsible for all the security measures.

Thus, before opting third-party security controls, have a proper check of the security standards. 

10. Always backup your system and database:

Finally, always back up the data. Online backups come to your rescue when the primary server malfunctions or when it is compromised. Apart from this, having an offline data backup is the solution for keeping the copies of the data on the official servers.

Moreover, local backups help you to rescue from the data disasters which happen from the host providers. 

Conclusion:

All the security mentioned above measures should keep your e-commerce business up to the mark in the best possible way. Even small negligence will be a significant risk to your small-scale business. 

Sometimes, even before security, a proper security check should be installed. The EV SSL certificate should be installed as it supports HTTPS. It also boosts organization profits. Once, EV SSL certificate is done then it is the right time for your website protection.