Online shops have become one of the most frequently attacked sites. This is because they handle personal information on a daily basis. That includes names, addresses, contacts, and card numbers. And that is where cybersecurity compliance comes in.
You need tools that secure your customers and limit the risks involved in online businesses. By staying compliant, you can protect your brand from costly breaches, downtime, and reputation damage. Read on to learn about some safety measures.
Secure your payment systems
As soon as a client keys in their card information, your liability grows. The payment systems should be secure, encrypted, and meet accepted standards such as PCI DSS. Make sure that card information is not stored in a careless manner or made vulnerable to unauthorized access.
E-commerce sites today often use a third-party payment gateway. But that does not mean you are free of liability. You still need to make sure that:
- Your checkout pages are on HTTPS.
- Your payment gateway is security compliant.
- You do not keep card data in plain text.
- Your modules or plugins are valid and up to date.
This will make your payment process efficient, safe, and reliable.
Protect customer data
Customer information is not limited to payment data. Your site contains e-mail addresses, phone numbers, order histories, and account credentials. Maintaining that safety would imply that there are proper controls of access, secure storage of data, and policies regarding who can see what.
A good compliance strategy is comprised of:
- Admin account multi-factor authentication.
- Encrypted databases.
- Regular backups.
- Strong password rules.
- Restricted access control in your team.
- Constant surveillance of suspicious behavior.
You can use experts to implement these ideas purposefully and regularly.
Obtain integrations and third-party tools
E-commerce is a large-scale business, and it depends on applications, tools, integrations, analytics tools, chatbots, CRM systems, courier services, etc. The issue is that any integration can be exploited by attackers.
Good compliance means:
- Checking third-party tools prior to installation.
- Deleting old or useless plugins.
- Meeting security best practices in integrations.
- Keeping everything updated
- Tracking the access of each system to customer information.
In some cases, it is not your site that might be breached, but rather a related service that you are using.
Engage cybersecurity compliance experts
Although a good number of e-commerce owners attempt to manage security in their own hands, there is always a limit to the technical simplicity of DIY applications. Cybersecurity compliance experts can assist you in learning which laws are relevant to your company. They will check where your systems are weak and put in place protective measures that are reasonable for your business, not the standard ones everyone uses.
These professionals have experience with various industries and platforms, so they can identify problems that you may have missed, like:
- Obsolete settings
- Dangerous integrations
- Data management loopholes.
As a result, you no longer have to waste hours speculating on what is amiss. You will have clarity, direction, and a clearer way of remaining compliant.
A key takeaway
Cybersecurity compliance demonstrates to customers that their safety is important at the end of the day. When your website is safe, customers will shop confidently, and that is what guarantees that they will be coming back.