Crucial E-Commerce Web Security Measures You Should Have In Place After COVID-19

Since the start of the year, all the humming you could hear was about the bugging Coronavirus and its fatal potentials. While it swept out city after city and gave us body counts – the sights of which would forever haunt our nightmares, it got people cowering in self-quarantine. Following this, their regular activities got largely biased towards digital platforms and Pandemic And e-commerce web security.

Needless to say, this quarantine year saw some serious spike in e-Commerce transactions. People seeking to maintain their health safety guidelines with social distancing found this the best way out. So, right from groceries to toiletries – everything was made available on the platforms. 

As great as this might sound, certain issues nodded their heads too on these platforms. One of the most prominent ones being security concerns. Any major turbulence from this angle can be of substantial concern for digital shoppers. Hence, for those in the e-Commerce business, here are some details on the platform, its security issues during and post the pandemic breakout and the measures that need to be in place. 

The 3-layers for 2020

Let’s come clear with one point first – no business has been immune in regards to cybersecurity when it comes to the post-pandemic era. None of the organizations have been spared the scare. As more and, more organizations banked on e-Commerce trends into the first half of 2020, the number of online financial transactions too increased. The consequences of any cybercrime related to this can be blasphemous. 

Here’s some detailing on how the Digital Trinity of the pandemic, e-Commerce, and web security has been playing out – 

A. Pandemic And e-commerce web security

From panic shopping to a regular habit-based shopping on digital platforms, the e-Commerce platforms are running high as compared to 2019, pre-pandemic hit. While the platforms showed promises of growth pre-pandemic, COVID-19 changed E-commerce considerably. The stats here are well representative of this.

B. E-commerce and Web Security By web security in the e-commerce sector, we mean everything – from pilfering the shopper’s financial-based information to the breaches across the diverse point-of-sales.

And in this regard, the whales of the industry have also faced similar challenges. For e-commerce security measures, there needs to be a few aspects that one needs to be acquainted with. This includes –

I) Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)

II) International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

III) Transport Layer Security (TLS), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), and HTTPS authentication

IV) Personal Data

V) Multi-factor authentication (MFA), 2-factor authentication (2FA), or 2-step verification (2SV)

VI) Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

C. e-commerce web security & The Pandemic

While the national orders for lockdown and strict guidelines from WHO about the quarantine period might have been the flags for nations worldwide, businesses initially suffered a major setback. However, do you know who had been having a field span during all of this? That’s Cybercriminals all across the globe. 

As online financial transactions were on the rise with people buying all their essentials digitally, more and more opportunities were created to follow up with the hacking of credit/debit card details.  As the eyes of the globe were glued to the healthcare sector trying to sort out remedies for the virus, giving all a chance to battle this vice of a virus, the digital crime-minds had been staying busy.

Among the various cyberattack, some domains are –

I. Phishing Scams

This involves an email developed to fool users to fall bait to some credible websites. The ulterior motive here is to avail access to the credentials of users. Such credentials may be financial or even confidential researchers.

II. Ransomware and Malware

In this case, cyber criminals hold back user files and hold them hostage for ransom. The malware and ransomware playoff by making an attachment seeming legitimate. 

III. Cyberattacks on Retailers

Let’s start with some interesting numbers – more than 42,000 websites have been developed with the domain name of COVID post the pandemic spread. 

While geographical boundaries were sealed off, this did not stop the cybercrimes from spreading to each inch of the globe. And apparently, most of these sites are not even legit, appearance-wise. Such scams are baiting-in retailer clients too. 

IV. Card Skimming

Card skimming is the latest dish on the menu. This kind of attack is challenging to spot. With the chances of client details being leaked, the e-Commerce section has a major hurdle to deal with. The risks lead to mitigated client fetching and retention, and with the competition in place, organizations cannot take this kind of a fall.

V. Open-Source Software Vulnerabilities

In cases of an open-source software vulnerability, such codes are used that anyone can modify, view, or enhance. The codes are of immense value to e-commerce organizations, the cybersecurity risks are peaked. 

With open-source software, them being free is huge leverage and can be customized to cater to the business requirements of various brands. While this software may continue to boost the platforms, it is extremely essential to be careful and make sure that e-Commerce owners do not use unpatched open source software that is prone to vulnerabilities. 

The ‘To-Have’s in Web Security Measure in E-Commerce For 2020

While some countries are looking at the 2nd wave of a COVID-19 hit, some have already experienced it. All of this is making it extremely essential to stick to digital platforms. This suggests that e-Commerce brands are looking to an even better spike in sales. 

Site owners would need to conduct a thorough evaluation of the required cybersecurity alterations and pandemic-driven IT changes. This involves the requirement to make strategic adjustments of the brand architectures, business procedures, cybersecurity controls regarding the long-term operating tactics of the brand. 

The major features in the coronavirus-stricken business realm can be anticipated as –

• Increased attention on enterprise resilience.
• A spike in the digital commerce market.
• Institutionalized and boosted remote working.
• Expanded surface cyber-attacks because of spoked telework. 
• Increased migration to cloud applications and infrastructures.
• Boosted the use of online collaborative tools and functionality. 

Considering these circumstances, organizations would need to consider certain aspects to make sure that they have taken the right e-commerce web security measures. Here is a list of the top aspects –

#1: Teleworking Solutions

As predicted before, the teleworking volume has its zenith during this pandemic period. Hence, to keep the web secure, top e-commerce development company must be following these measures–

• Manage the access and identity for remote workforces. These workforces cater to corporate security needs and the convenient requirements of employees as well. 
• Gain access to on-demand bandwidth. This will help move content inclusive of – spread out geographically dispersed sites and video conferencing.
• Implement management solutions for mobile devices. This is especially helpful in the case of addressing the utility of company approved and issued personal mobiles for organization requirements. Considering this, Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) need to be implemented as per the policies of the BYOD.
• VPN capacities need to be established across the Internet Protocol Security-based VPN customers’ deployment. You may also choose to establish additional secure connectivity solutions to the workstations of employees. 
• Scrutinize the use of internet-based remote desktop protocols of enterprises. This enables remote access to servers and Windows systems. 

#2: Cyber Operations of e-commerce web security

The pre-COVID realm witnessed a luxury in the form of e-commerce web security platforms. However, as Coronavirus ‘swept people off their feet’, this ceased to be a luxury. While this is good news for e-commerce site owners, they need to skim through the operating environment with a completely new perspective. 

Let’s say the digital shopping sites would be looking towards –

• Disable the split tunneling for VPN profiles. This prevents remote employees from gaining direct access to the internet over personal laptops while still having access to confidential corporate information. 
• Update and review VPN profiles and the various rules of firewalls in case employees have convenient access to suitable privileges based on their allotted job roles.
• Develop mechanisms that would ensure any suspicious emails and forward the same for technical analysis. 
• Enable multi-factor authentication for information procedures and VPN. 

#3: Do Not Store Customer Data

E-commerce site owners know the beckoning that they have towards storing client data for the futuristic purposes of analyzing and laying out the groundwork for business growth. 

However, with such temptations comes the increased responsibility that owners have towards the data in case of any damage to the same post data theft. It is also advisable to bank on third party gateways for the payment execution. 

#4: External Perimeter Pandemic And e-commerce web security

As work from home continues to proliferate, remote connections are spiked. Needless to say, this pushes the surfaces of cyber attack vulnerability of e-Commerce organizations. In regards to protecting such external perimeters, brands would need to implement –

• Abilities that aid the remote endpoint collection of data and analysis of the identification of unauthorized activities. 
• Network Access Control (NAC) for the validation and authentication of devices and impose the policies of security before offering them permission to establish the connection to corporate remote or in-office networks. 
• The approach to lock down user workstations and any laptops issued by organizations. This would help in the establishment of configuration that is managed centrally, have a defined secured configuration, and refrain from the assignment of administrative privileges to the end-users. 

#5: Cloud Services

Cloud services have become a common digital goal for almost all organizations. With cloud services comes a host of leverages that are inclusive of significant –

• Potential security
• Efficiency
• Cost
• Resilience

-leverages over the application and storage of data that host alternatives. 

While these advantages are extremely beneficial for organizations, individuals would need to ensure that the strategies need to be laid out deliberately, adopted, and managed well. In such cases, organizations would need to take into account –

• Laying out the policies of data storage that outlines the conditions which are considered essential for the use of data center storage, local storage, and cloud services in case of essential information.
• Adopting formal strategies in the case of cloud service usage.
• Developing the total inventories of existing cloud usage in organizations and rationalizing multiple service usage.

#6: Cyber-Attack Financial Protection and Recovery

Taking into consideration the cybersecurity vulnerabilities, site owners should be relying on their insurance coverages and list-in any adjustments that are made to their functional operations. These functionalities comprise new physical assets and various alterations in cybersecurity measures. 

With any cyberattack, there are risks fetched on the aspects of organizational financial issues and the cyber-infrastructure. 

Provided the risks are considerable, cyber insurance is crucial since it can offer crucial financial backstop and expensive solutions. Some of the considerations in this respect must be –

• Be on alert about the prospective alterations in conditions and coverage terms during the renewal procedure.
• Review the identification of potential gaps and multiple other such current insurance coverage aspects.
• Analyze how the various challenges in cybersecurity are falling into the company’s cyber risks strategies of transfer of brands. 

While these are the technical aspects of cybersecurity e-commerce measures, there are some other basic measures that need to be adopted by site owners as well. These tips include .

Tips of e-commerce web security

Train your in-house team

Mandate customers use strong, secure passwords

Educate your customers

Know that Cloud-based systems have greater protection

Implement multi-layer security

Conclusion e-commerce web security

Let’s say, your e-Commerce sites are only as good as your website security measures. Established credibility of the site will go a long way with your existing and potential clients. With facts and figures straightened, there will be increased chances of getting viral and gaining free advertising approaches on social media platforms.  When your competitors are breathing on your shoulders, can you afford to pass up on this opportunity? We guess not. So, come on, get started at the earliest!