Security Best Practices for Your Magento Store

It’s well documented that modern security breaches can do irreversible damage to your business and reputation. To help you stay ahead of the curve, our Magento security experts have put together a useful article detailing effective ways to defend your business from increasingly frequent and sophisticated ecommerce store attacks.

Preventive action is much better than corrective action when it comes to your Magento security. The best practices below will go a long way towards preventing attackers slipping through your defences.

Always Use the Latest Version of Magento

Whenever a new version of Magento is released, it comes with enhanced security features and patches for previous vulnerabilities. As such, it is crucial to always use the latest version of Magento to firstly enhance your security and also improve the end-to-end performance of your website as a whole.

Utilise SSL/ HTTPS Encrypted Connections

SSL certificates are an effective way of encrypting the datasets moving between browsers and servers. They ensure that unauthorised third parties can’t gain access to confidential data including personal information and credit card details. Data exchange must be done via secure HTTPS connections that keep sensitive information safe from illegal interception.

Make Use of Secure FTP

FTP is another one of the key Magento security best practices. You can protect against attackers intercepting FTP passwords on unencrypted connections by setting complex passwords consisting of letters, numbers, and special characters that can’t easily be guessed. In addition to this, enable SFTP (Secured File Transfer Protocol), which requires authentication via a private key.

Save Regular Backups of Your Website

Do you regularly backup your website? If not, it is something you need to start doing right away. That’s because, if something were to go wrong as a result of a hack, for example, you can recover all your critical data from your backup. This is not to mention the significant time and cost savings to be made as well.

Enable Two-factor Authentication for Your Site

It is good practice to enable two-factor authentication to enhance your Magento store security. Magento comes complete with this extension as standard, allowing you to strengthen your defences. It means you increase the safety of your Magento credentials using a password as well as an additional security verification code that’s sent to your device.

Leverage Automated Security Solutions for Better Protection

Using automated security solutions helps maximise the safety of your online store. There are numerous Magento extensions that fall under the automated security solution category. This includes:

• MSP NoSpam
• Alarmbell Extension
• Sentry
• Admin Password Strength

Not only do such tools provide robust security for your website, but they also do a great job of significantly reducing your security costs. Hire a Magento developer with proven experience for useful guidance on the best approach to automated security solutions.

Restrict Your Magento Admin Login Attempts

Another good Magento security check to incorporate into your business is to restrict the number of times a user is allowed to enter the wrong login details. It’s an effective way of keeping unauthorised personnel from illegally accessing your admin panel and compromising confidential information. To further strengthen your security in this regard you can also put a limit on password reset requests.

Use a Unique Admin URL

Most websites are set to have a /admin URL to access the admin dashboard by default. Keeping that standard URL is one of the biggest and most avoidable Magento security issues. Updating to a unique URL means attackers cannot even access your website’s admin page (since it’s technically hidden) and acts as a highly effective preventive measure that keeps your business safe from harm.

Address Recommended File & Directory Permissions

It’s always worth customising your Magento online store to the unique needs of your business for optimal results. Critical to this, are files and folders — including their relevant permissions. Just keep in mind that recommended file and directory permissions are a complex area. As such, it’s a good idea to consult Magento specialists for assistance.

Add User Roles & Permissions

Setting specific user roles lays the groundwork for more clarity on responsibilities and enhancing Magento security. Since users are given the level of permissions they require to perform their job and nothing more, it diminishes the potential of both intentional and unintentional actions endangering your business-critical information.

Upgrade to Magento 2

Make it a priority to upgrade to Magento 2 if you haven’t already. For starters, the later version addresses some major Magento 1 vulnerabilities in terms of security and also boosts end-to-end website performance. Magento 2 helps to ensure your PCI compliance in addition to providing other safety features that keep your business secure. Hire a Magento 2 developer with extensive migration experience for a seamless transition.

Establish a Plan in Case of Emergency

It’s important to have some human input, instead of solely relying on software solutions for your online security. That’s because human attackers are continuously developing increasingly creative techniques, which still make them a significant threat — even if you have the right technology in place.

For this reason, you should work with your internal personnel as well as external Magento security consultants to develop plans that lay out your procedures, should there be a cyber emergency for any number of reasons.

Select the Right Hosting Provider

The saying is true — you often get what you pay for. Make it a point to look beyond the price factor as much as possible when it comes to your hosting. Different providers offer different plans that come with various advantages and drawbacks. If you’re running a Magento ecommerce store, you’ll see the most benefits from a managed hosting plan, thanks to the enhanced security at server level.

Hire Magento Experts to Review Your Security

While there are many elements you can handle yourself to strengthen the security of your website, there are others that require the attention of specialists to keep your protected.

Magento security experts have extensive experience with the intricacies of testing vulnerabilities and coding errors that can put your website at an increased risk of attacks. Getting regular reviews helps to keep you safe from evolving threats and also provides extra peace of mind while running your business.

As can be seen, there’s a lot of work that goes into establishing robust security measures to protect your Magento website. To ensure you get this critical aspect of your ecommerce business right, work with a leading Magento development company like Vsourz to optimise your online security.

We have a long and successful track record of conducting Magento security audits, implementing tailored action plans, and providing the requisite support and maintenance thereafter.