With all the modern technological advancements that are aimed to make our life easier and more pleasant new risks arise with security being the most important area of concern. Hackers are using sophisticated systems to hack sites all over the world daily. The problem becomes even bigger when it comes to eCommerce sites that store their customers’, e.g. emails, passwords, shipping details, etc.
Magento has a large market share as an eCommerce content management system. In this article, I will share useful tips on Magento security that are important for every Magento merchant (some of them are universal though and can be applied to any CMS).
Don’t Ignore Security Patches
When Magento team finds out there is a vulnerability or security breach in the system, it releases a new security patch. Think of it as a lock for a door through which hackers could enter your site. Without locking this door, you can have uninvited guests one day.
Patches are minor code changes. They are available on the official Magento website, you can sign up to get security notifications. The patches are scripts that update code in Magento core files. That is why the store admins should never change anything in the core files themselves: patches and other updates may just don’t work.
Update Your Extensions
Though out of the box Magento provides great functionality, you will still probably need some extensions to customize it and add new features.
Extensions are created by different developers and companies, so you should be careful when choosing among them. Most modules have regular updates which apart from some bug fixes may contain security fixes. That is why it is also important to update the extensions in your store once the updates are available.
Back Up Your Store Regularly
Yes, I know you’ve heard about it so many times. But the thing is that many Magento users (as well as those who prefer other CMS) still ignore this vital part and understand. But the understanding of backups importance usually comes only when it is too late or impossible to restore lost data.
To avoid such a scenario you can create scheduled backups and store them on your servers or use cloud services for that.
Additionally, don’t forget to check the health of your backups. Try to use one of them on your demo store and see whether it works as needed.
Change Login URL
All content management systems have default login URLs, and Magento is not an exception. Brute force attackers use these URLs and try to guess the passwords using a trial and error method. By changing the default login URL to a custom one you protect your store from such attacks.
Restrict Admin Access by IP Address
This means that only those IP addresses that are white-labeled by you can login to your store admin panel. This is quite problematic though if you have a dynamic IP address.
Use Two-factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication is a login system when in addition to the password one needs to use a special one-time code generated by the system and sent to a mobile phone or via a special app. Of course, logging in using such steps may be boring and it takes longer than usual login but it drastically decreases the chances of your site being hacked.
Set System Alerts of Any Suspicious Activity
Such activity can include unauthorized login attempts, fraud orders, etc. Monitor your site regularly to see any potential security problems.
Final Thoughts
Procedures on securing Magento can take time. But once the process is set up, you will need to just check it from time to time. Remember that Magento security is too expensive to ignore.
Author : Henny Kel
I am an experienced Content Strategist and Brand Specialist. I have been contributing to many high domain authority sites.
