Online security is the new must-have now. People are concerned about privacy and security like never as there are increased online transactions during this pandemic and are still expected to grow.
People are relying on online banking for daily shopping. Thus, making online transactions a common and regular task. However, you should be careful while depending on online transactions and make your business more secure than before.
To maintain the high standard security levels, you should start to implement healthy cybersecurity practices.
This article lists the best practices to encourage customer safety and ensure that personal and financial information is kept safe without compromising.
Let us see the steps in which the online transactions are made hassle free with security:
- Install SSL Certificate:
So, coming to the top security practices, installing an SSL Certificate is a must for all e-commerce business owners. As you know, the SSL encrypts the data between the web server and the web servers and helps identify the client systems on the web servers.
Moreover, an SSL certificate gives you the guarantee of data encryption, data integrity, and data authentication.
The browser establishes a connection on the client system to the web server, which is reliable and secured through the SSL certificate and requests for the server for identification. The server sends an SSL certificate with the public key to the client-server. However, the browser will verify an SSL certificate’s expiry and always make sure that it is updated.
Once the server validates the SSL certificate, the server decrypts the symmetric key with the public key’s help. Now, the server and browser encrypt the data transmitted through the servers, thus making it secure.
The website owners who do not have SSL installed have to face the consequences of not following the Google policy guidelines as it marks your website as not secure.
As a functionality, Google indexes only the HTTPS versions of web pages than the HTTP version. The visitors or the customers choose the HTTPS version of the website.
There are chances that your website may have security issues, if not for the time being, but HTTP version websites are more vulnerable to data breaches, hacking, and security threats in the long run.
For your understanding, Google Chrome changes the HTTP indicator to a red triangle as the customer tries to enter the information on that page.
Overall, the website performance enhances to a great extent if you have a multi-domain wildcard SSL certificate running.
If your website is content-based or a blogging website involving no shopping, you should protect your content with Domain Validated Certificate. Overall, website security investing boosts website traffic, conversion rates, and SERP and avoids unnecessary Google penalties.
It has become a crucial investment for all website owners to consider installing an SSL certificate.
SSL certificates have become essential for e-commerce business owners for better ranking of the websites. Also, these provide stability and confidentiality for the website. If you have missed installing an SSL certificate, do not neglect it further and consider Buying SSL and installing one today.
- Comply with PCI DSS:
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Council promotes safe and secure financial transactions. This makes sure that your website meets the required standards for accepting online transactions.
PCI DSS educates ecommerce business owners on online safety tips and strategies and details about enhancing the website’s security. Moreover, the PCI DSS checks for all the vulnerabilities for all the financial transactions and fixes them.
- Do not store customer payment data:
Do not store the customer’s details unnecessarily when not required. It is a common practice to ask for the name, payment details to complete the financial transactions. However, after the transaction is there is no use in keeping the customer information.
However, you can reach out to the customers to improve your business and know their feedback. The customers can also gain confidence with your continuous service.
- Use an Address Verification Service:
Online merchants use Address Verification Service (AVS) is a security tool to verify if the cardholder’s billing address matches the one with the card.
Moreover, during a credit or debit card transaction by default, the address is verified from the merchants’ side. So, the merchant receives a response from the credit card or debit card holder for further transactions.
- Verify the transaction:
Though you are using AVS, it is equally important to verify the transaction to prevent any fraud. To avoid financial scams, you can ask customers for the CVV number on the card.
Nowadays, even banks are generating an OTP to check if the transaction is genuine or not. Therefore, maintaining financial hygiene is crucial.
- Use tokenization and encryption:
Both tokenization and encryption are effective ways to ensure web protection. Tokenization will eradicate the system’s data and replace it with a distinctive associated value, whereas encryption keeps the original information intact. However, it is inaccessible without a proper key.
- Update:
Yes, update! You need to regularly update all your applications, e-commerce platforms to check for any loopholes and vulnerabilities. This also helps in filtering the malware that might exist in outdated programs. Such obsolete patches are uninvited guests for all sorts of vulnerable breaches.
Make sure to update all the platforms and dependent patches for software to avoid any security glitches.
Final Words:
Following the above-discussed security practices, you can avoid significant safety issues and secure online business transactions. To avoid ending up paying hefty amounts to reconstruct your website, it is always a great idea to invest rightly in security.
Make sure you adopt a holistic approach in maintaining your website, which provides 24/7 protection. Ensuring the customers, a seamless online experience adds credibility to your business.
