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Every day it seems like the news breaks about another site getting hacked, and it doesn’t show any sign of stopping anytime soon. If you’re online, hacking is a reality that has to be taken seriously. As security becomes more efficient, so do the hackers, creating a never-ending cycle of moves and countermoves.

Failing to keep up with the security rat race will only leads to finding yourself on the wrong end of a bad hack or two, or four, or more! For ecommerce sites, security is a top issue – you’re dealing with people’s personal, very private (and unfortunately very valuable) information, you need to make sure your site is keeping that information safe and secure.

A company and customer’s worst nightmare is discovering they were the victim of a hacker capitalizing on a particular vulnerability within a site’s structure. The customer is worried because their information could have been scraped, and the company is, not only worried about information being scraped, but also, left wondering if they are still vulnerable – and if this is going to open the door to more security breaches.

Hackers are getting better and better, so your security needs to as well. Here are a few, specific things you can do to harden up the security on your Magento site:

1. User Permissions

These are pretty straightforward, but are often overlooked. Use them to control, not only who has access to your site, but also what level of access they have. This means the administrator with full permissions can grant “need to know” access to other users, so they can see everything they need to and nothing they don’t. You can also restrict admin access to IP addresses only you approve; this way, you know who is accessing your site and you control from where it can be accessed.

2. Security Updates

One of the simpler things you can do to protect your site is to stay on top of security updates. This includes, not only security updates released for your site, but security updates released for your anti-virus software as well. Remember that never-ending cycle of security and hacker evolution? You don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of it – keeping up-to-date with your security updates will help.

3. Magento Best Practices

One of the best things you can do for the security of your Magento site is to follow Magento’s best practices. This means:

• • using the latest version of Magento
  • implementing the latest security patches
  • reviewing code periodically from the viewpoint of the attacker
  • use frameworks and follow guidelines
  • hide your admin with a custom path
  • create strong passwords intelligently & do not use it anywhere else
  • use user permissions & restrictions to control who can access your site & from where
  • change file permissions so your folders are writable to only you
  • have a backup plan for your backups
  • dedicated hosting

It seems simple to put the security of your site at the top of your priorities. However, so many site owners think of it as a once-and-done kind of thing and then they, and their customers, pay the price when their site is hacked and valuable information is scraped. Put the effort in now to protect your site, protect your customers, and protect yourself. The battle against hackers in the digital world can be treacherous, but you don’t have to do it on your own – implement these top-notch security practices and stay safe out there!