Magento and Online Store Security

Security of the website and user data is something that requires special attention from developers and owners of Magento online stores. Users are used to the fact that websites should guarantee the safety of their data, information, and secure transfers of funds. Therefore, when you launch an online store, you need to take care of security and protection. What should you pay attention to? We will talk about this today.

There are a lot of different tools for searching and analysing weaknesses in the security system. To ensure the proper operation of your online store, you need to monitor the system and search for potential threats. The following tools will help you with this:

• Magento Security Scan Tool;

• OWASP ZAP (Zed Attack Proxy);

• Nessus;

• Burp Suite;

• OpenVAS;

• Nexpose.

But tools alone will not be enough, it's the job of security experts.

Stable and regular system updates are the key to your website's security. Magento improves its products on a regular basis. If you follow the updates of each extension and component, the system will work properly and have a minimum number of security holes. Stable updates minimize risks.

If you receive an urgent update notification, you should install it as soon as possible. After all, each new update may contain important components.

Two-factor authentication is an additional security tool for users. Its feature is that the user must provide two different verification options. These authentication options include:

• a password and a one-time security code, which can be received in a message or through an authentication app;

• biometric data: a fingerprint or facial recognition of the user;
• a physical security key, for example, YubiKey.

The trend of online fraudsters has increased in recent years, due to the fact that there is a lot of information and data available online. Payments are also made online. It's better to give users the opportunity to protect themselves and their finances to the maximum rather than neglect this aspect. Of course, not everyone will use such methods, but there is a category of people who do.

DDoS attacks are a type of hacker attack on servers that can make a store unavailable to users. Attackers send an incredible number of requests to your website's servers (via bots and special software) to overload them and make them unavailable.

In order to counteract such threats, there are the following protection measures and tools:

• use of DDoS protection;
• configuring traffic and firewalls;
• use of a CDN (Content Delivery Network);
• stable work with updates and patches;
• load distribution to different servers;
• anti-flooding of the system;
• development of system recovery plans;
• availability of system and data backups.

Yes, training your staff on how to deal with threats is something that cannot be neglected. The staff who work with the Magento website should not only understand how hackers work, what types of threats exist, but also deal with them professionally.

The staff must be knowledgeable in the field of security systems, counteracting attacks of various types and scales. It is also necessary to introduce rules regarding the creation of work accounts, the creation of strong passwords (or their random generation to make life more difficult for fraudsters).

Separately, it is necessary to conduct explanatory work on working with client data and private information.

Magento website security requires a comprehensive approach from the management. It's not enough to hire professional workers, you need to establish and develop your own security protocols, protocols for handling important information and data. Of course, regular updates are important, but there are a lot of official tools available, both open source (so you can customize them to your needs) and off-the-shelf options.