Follow These E-Commerce Best Practices to Protect Your Customers

E-commerce security threats cost online retailers billions of dollars annually and can be devastating enough to shut down online stores. Although many stores take security threats in e-commerce seriously, more can be done to protect your business and your customers from online attacks.

Here are eight types of security attacks in e-commerce and some e-commerce solutions to protect you from being a victim of hackers or other threats.

Types of Security Attacks in E-Commerce

E-commerce attacks can come in many forms that can disrupt your ecommerce platform and your customers’ accounts and data. Earning the trust of your customers requires a consistent awareness of the evolving types of fraud and cyberattacks to help you ensure solutions are in place across your sales funnel.

1. Financial fraud

Financial fraud takes several forms. It involves hackers gaining access to your customer's personal information or payment information, then selling that information on the black market. It also involves fraudsters using stolen credit card information to make illegitimate purchases from your e-commerce store.

2. Phishing

Your customers are the target in a phishing scam, where a fraudster sends messages or emails pretending to be you with the goal of obtaining their private information. These messages may contain logos, URLs, and other information that appears to be legitimate, but it won't be you sending it. They'll ask customers to verify their account by logging in and then use the information to steal personal data.

3. Spamming

In an attempt to obtain personal information—or to affect your website's performance—spammers may leave infected links in their comments or messages on your website, such as on blog posts or contact forms. If you click on the links, they can take you to a spam website that exposes you to malware.

4. Malware

Malware refers to malicious programs such as spyware, viruses, trojan horses, and ransomware. Hackers install it on your computer system and spread it to your customers and administrators, where it might swipe sensitive data on their systems and from your website.

5. Bad bots

People are generally aware that bots are all over the Internet, obtaining information about our habits and behaviours. Your competition, however, could use bots to gather information about your inventory and prices. They then use that information to change their prices. Or hackers can send malicious bots to e-commerce checkout pages to buy large amounts of a product and scalp it for up to 10 times the list price.

6. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks

Distributed denial of service attacks happens when your servers receive an overwhelming amount of requests from various IP addresses—usually untraceable—that cause your server to crash. That means your e-commerce store isn't available to visitors, which disrupts your sales.

7. Fake return and refund fraud

Fraudsters can obtain money from you by committing fake returns and refund fraud in many ways. Some use a stolen credit card to purchase merchandise, then claim that the card is closed and request a refund to another card. Others use counterfeit receipts to request refunds for items they haven't purchased.

8. Man-in-the-middle attacks

With technology evolving, so are hackers' schemes. Man-in-the-middle attacks allow the hacker to listen in on the communications of e-commerce website users. These users are tricked into using a public wireless network, enabling hackers to access their devices and see their browsing history. They can also access credit card information, passwords, and usernames.

E-Commerce Security Solutions

The above e-commerce security threats might be scary, but there are ways to prevent them from impacting your e-commerce marketplace. Some require fancy software, but others don't take a lot of extra work to implement. And beyond protecting your online shop, your customers will be happy that their personal data and information is kept private.

Address Verification Systems

An address verification system compares the customer's billing address against the credit card issuer's information on file. If the addresses don't match, the system prevents the transaction from going through.

Stronger passwords

Many e-commerce businesses don't require their users to provide strong passwords, making client accounts easy to hack. Implement a system that requires your customers to use strong passwords with letters, numbers, and symbols to make their accounts difficult to hack into. While you're at it, make sure you and your administration have secure passwords, and ensure user access is restricted to those who need it. When employees are terminated, revoke all system access immediately. 

Payment gateways

Rather than being responsible for storing and securing your clients' information, use a third party such as PayPal or Stripe to handle payment transactions separately from your website. This keeps your customers' information safer and makes you less attractive to hackers.

HTTPS

Many e-commerce businesses still use HTTP protocols, which are vulnerable to attacks. HTTPS is more secure and protects sensitive information. Before switching to HTTPS, you'll need an up-to-date SSL certification from your hosting company. It's worth it to give your customers peace of mind and protect their information—and your business.

The Importance of E-Commerce Security Best Practices

E-commerce security measures are vital to ensuring your customers' information is kept safe and preventing attacks against your business. Taking steps to safeguard your customers and your business will save you money, time, and energy in the long run. It might even protect your reputation.

American Express customers enjoy a number of security features and fraud protection services to protect every transaction for both merchants and Cardmembers.

With American Express SafeKey, every point-of-sale and online purchase is verified, meaning you won’t be held liable for fraudulent purchases. From your customer’s perspective, our fraud detection and identity verification are seamlessly implemented within your e-commerce platform, ensuring that customers don’t abandon their purchases during transaction verification.

You can also speak to your American Express merchant representative to understand how our Enhanced Authorization services can provide immediate transaction verification by leveraging our Global Merchant Network.

Whether your point-of-sale is a contactless in-store card reader or an online e-commerce platform, purchases made with American Express Cards provide your customers with a frictionless experience and your business with the security of knowing every purchase is valid.

To learn more about how American Express can support your e-commerce security, you can contact your American Express merchant representative or consult our Merchant Reference Guide.

 

This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or an opinion on any issue. It should not be regarded as comprehensive or a substitute for professional advice.