Magento Security: How to Keep Your eCommerce Store Safe

Introduction

Magento is a widely recognized eCommerce platform that facilitates convenient and user-friendly online shopping experiences. It empowers retailers to establish their shop fronts and shopping carts, enabling seamless interactions with customers.

Although this eCommerce platform enjoys popularity, it is important to note that it can be susceptible to compromises due to a notable level of security vulnerabilities. However, Magento provides a range of tools for analytics, monitoring, and conversion optimization to assist businesses in enhancing their performance and maximizing conversions.

As an online store owner, it is your responsibility to prioritize the security of your customers’ information. Merely relying on Magento’s default security measures may not be sufficient. In such a scenario, it is crucial to implement these additional security measures to safeguard your eCommerce store from potential threats.

Magento Security Measures to Safeguard Your eCommerce Store Safe

By adhering to the provided checklist, you can effectively mitigate Magento store protection issues and safeguard your eCommerce store from potential hacking incidents. Explore the following Magento security best practices to ensure the safety and well-being of your online store.

Upgrade to the latest version of Magento

Although upgrading to the most recent version of Magento may appear as a common suggestion, it remains challenging for the majority of store owners to implement. Surprisingly, more than 99% of stores that utilize Magento 1.x versions are susceptible to hacking. With each update, Magento development services not only address issues and bugs but also incorporate new security measures to enhance the platform’s resilience.

By ensuring your store is up to date with the latest version of Magento, you significantly reduce the chances of it being compromised. Starting from Magento 2.3.3, Adobe has initiated the release of security-only patches for all Magento versions. These patches enable store owners to receive timely security fixes without the need for a complete store upgrade until they are prepared to do so.

Use 2FA (Two-factor authentication)

Adobe Commerce, popularly known as the Magento platform, incorporates a robust two-factor authentication security feature that enhances confidentiality and safeguards Magento website development. This feature exclusively permits trusted devices to access the Magento 2 backend by utilizing four distinct types of authenticators.

By incorporating a 2FA extension into your Magento store, you can enhance the security of your Magento administrator login. This extension utilizes both a secret word and a security code from your phone, ensuring an additional layer of protection. To access Magento 2 management, you will only share the code with authorized users. The good news is that there are numerous Magento extensions available that offer 2FA functionality, alleviating concerns about security risks associated with secret keys in Magento.

Secure the server

For optimal security and prolonged support, it is highly advisable to opt for the most recent stable operating system for your server. Keeping the operating system up to date not only ensures seamless operations but also promptly applies security patches as soon as vulnerabilities are identified. By doing so, you can maximize both security and the longevity of support for your server.

It is crucial to remember the importance of employing strong and distinct passwords for users and all software components, such as MySQL, Redis, PHP, Apache, or Nginx. Utilizing a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters adds an extra layer of complexity, making passwords harder to guess.

Install an SSL certificate on your Store website

Having an SSL certificate is essential for every website as it serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it aids in improving your Google ranking, while simultaneously instilling customer confidence when they engage in online shopping on your site. Additionally, from a security standpoint, an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate is specifically designed to encrypt all data shared on your website.

By installing an SSL certificate on your Magento store, you can effectively safeguard all sensitive data, including credit card details and login information, shared on your website. This crucial step helps ensure the security of your information, protecting it from potential hackers who may seek to engage in criminal activities such as identity theft or forgery.

Instances of such scams not only damage your reputation but also result in substantial financial losses, including potential fines resulting from data breaches.

Utilizing Magento reCAPTCHA

One highly effective method to enhance the security of your online store is by utilizing Magento’s reCAPTCHA feature. This feature accurately distinguishes between human users and bots during the login process, guaranteeing authentic and secure site access.

Many website owners employ various measures to protect their websites from attacks such as dictionary attacks. Additionally, they implement strategies to ensure that search engine spiders only crawl essential pages on the site, thereby preventing the presence of spam content. These precautions are taken to mitigate the risk of sensitive data or databases being exploited by malicious individuals.

Make use of Adobe Magento’s security scan

Were you aware that the Magento platform provides a complimentary security scan tool that can be easily accessed by logging into your Magento account and configuring it? Once set up, you have the flexibility to run scans on a daily, weekly, or manual schedule. To ensure ownership verification, simply establish a confirmation code on your website, and the scan will execute according to your specified settings. After each successful test, you will receive the scan results via email.

By performing over 17,000 security tests, Magento’s security scan provides valuable insights into the security status of your store. Furthermore, it offers practical recommendations based on industry best practices to assist you in addressing any identified issues effectively.

Use a firewall to stop MySQL injection

To enhance the security of your eCommerce store, it is crucial to incorporate an additional layer of protection such as a web application firewall (WAF) or network firewall. A WAF carefully analyzes, monitors, and filters web traffic, identifying any suspicious patterns. By intercepting and blocking malicious traffic before it reaches your server, the WAF acts as a proactive shield against potential threats.

In order to defend your website against hacking and cyberattacks, it is essential to keep your web application firewalls (WAFs) up to date, promptly blocking any newly identified threats. By integrating a WAF into your Magento website, you not only shield your store from security vulnerabilities but also fortify it against cross-site scripting attacks and intricate SQL injection attacks.

By incorporating a firewall application, you can strengthen the security of your website beyond the preventive measures against MySQL injection offered by Magento. This additional layer of defense effectively safeguards your websites against potential security breaches and various types of attacks.

Change the store encryption key regularly

Magento employs industry-standard AES-256 algorithms to encrypt sensitive data such as passwords and payment information. When installing Magento, you will be prompted to either manually enter an encryption key or allow Magento to generate one automatically. It is crucial to periodically update this encryption key to minimize the possibility of it being decrypted or compromised by malicious actors.

To modify the encryption key, it is necessary to confirm that your app/etc/env.php file has writable permissions. Once ensured, within the Magento admin panel, navigate to System > Other Settings > Manage Encryption Key. From there, you can either choose ‘Yes’ to automatically generate a new key or manually enter your desired key in the ‘New Key’ field. Finally, click on ‘Change Encryption Key’ to apply the changes.

Safeguarding your Magento store should be your initial priority

Voila! Here is the list of security best practices for Adobe Commerce to safeguard your Magento store against potential attackers. It is recommended to perform regular scans of your Magento website to verify that all security measures are in order and your site operates seamlessly.

If you ever need assistance, feel free to contact Bytes Technolab Inc., a Magento eCommerce development company in Canada. We will provide you with an initial review and security assessment of your website and will also assess the existing protection standards, identify any potential vulnerabilities, prepare a comprehensive report on risk factors, and assist you in resolving them effectively.

So, hire our dedicated Magento developers and protect your eCommerce store today!