Magento Security Best Practices: Make Your E-Store Absolutely Secure
A projected number of 240,000 ecommerce businesses use Magento for their web workings, amounting to 30%, which represents a sizable chunk of the ecommerce market. Datanyze Ecommerce Platforms Market Share Report, quoted by Fayyaz Khattak in Magento Security Tips to Keep Your Ecommerce Store Safe & Secure states – “12,708 ecommerce websites on Alexa Top 1 Million ranking are using Magento (out of 467 other technologies) that has a 14.31% share, a significant chunk of the ecommerce pie.” Fayyaz Khattak’s article appeared on Cloudways site, a firm that simplifies hosting experiences for corporates.
The downside of this massive popularity of the platform is that it’s a sitting duck for hackers. This vulnerability can put your customers at risk. Your company’s repute and client trust will be at stake. As a Magento web development company, Litmus Branding is aware of this threat and has chalked out some strategies to ensure absolute cyber safety for Magento users.
Let’s reveal some security measures that Litmus Branding uses to protect your Magento e-store.
1. Magento’s Updated Version – A Necessity
The Magento platform regularly comes with newer versions of its software. It covers stuff such as overall upkeep, bug patches and security solutions targeting the latest loop holes. The expert opinion is that upgrading to newer software versions can be more frustrating than supportive. But Magento is different! Unlike other websites for whom security comes later for Magento it’s a fundamental feature. They provide patch notes along with all their new versions. Furthermore, Magento goes public with all the helpful patches to explain the corrected errors. This alerts hackers, who may then prey on all the older versions, so update as soon as a new version is out. Better be safe than sorry.
2. Modify the Standard Admin URL Path
Hackers should not possibly access the admin page. If they do, it won’t be so tough for them to come up with forced brute attacks and dig into your password. The typical URL of an e-store admin pane on Magento, by default is yourdomain.com/admin. If not altered, it will be very easy for anybody to go into a login page of the admin panel. Of course, they will require the password, but still why keep any door unlocked. Customize /admin of the website’s URL path into something exclusive, which will not be easy to crack. For help refer to Magento User Guide to build an untraceable path. These Magento security tips have been shared by Nathan Orr in, 7 Essential Magento Security Tips to Protect your Ecommerce for Creative Minds, a company that specialises in user-centric software solutions.
3. Back it Up
In a worst-case scenario if your website is hacked, make it a habit to keep a back-up ready for restoration. Your business won’t be affected if you have been taking consistent back ups on the cloud and also off line. This way, you can restore the website to its nearest, last date good condition. Magento extension is the most dependable option for this
4. Security-Setting
A very safe server environment is crucial for the overall security of a website. To seal the security, discuss with your web hosting provider what security measure they are taking. The server should not have any software which is unnecessary. See to it that only the most secure protocols are used in communication, such as SFTP, HTTPS and SSH.
5. Unfailing Scanning Software
Picture a situation when a 3rd party plugin creates a security hazard in your Magento website, which the server scanner is unable to detect. To steer clear of such perils, it is necessary to run regular scans on your Magento website of reliable service providers such as ForeGenix and MageReport, recommends, recommends Amanda DiSilvestro in 10 tips to make your Magento online store more secure written for Search Engine Watch, an organisation that shares information on web searches, search engines and search rankings.
6. Restrict Directory Indexing
Deactivating directory indexing is one of the commonest methods to secure your Magento e-store. Disabling the directory indexing possibility will help you hide numerous paths via which a program that stores domain files. It will stop miscreants from accessing confidential files of the website, as those will be out of sight for them.
Other Magento 2 Security Best Practices and Features
7. Better Passwords Management Practices
A password is the key to consumer safety that is most vulnerable to cyber-attacks. “Magento 2 has met this challenge by using SHA-256 hashing algorithms in its password management system. This encryption protocol is virtually unbreakable, says the author of an article Magento 2 Security Best Practices – How to Protect Your Store for Webforpro, an e-commerce engineering company.
8. Magento 2 Security Extensions
Magento 2 has a wide range of security extensions that could be integrated on your e-store. Magento 2 Enterprise Edition for instance has the built-in module for controlling administration security. For example, Admin Actions Log extension by Amasty appoints you the administrator. This will maintain an inclusive log of all your actions on the site as a back-end manager. Keeping account of logged operations, users’ visits history and login attempts, one can easily detect the history of the security lapse.
9. Basic Guidelines
a). Don’t link in to your e-store through the FTP. Inactivate FTP fully to discourage hackers.
b) Messy password exercises are a big NO NO! Usage of solid passwords that need to be changed regularly should be the norm.
c). Retract admission from users who don’t require it any longer. A couple of ‘sleeper’ accounts in a Magento store are an invitation to miscreants.
d). Keep a check on your backups. Even though you may have the best backup system but if it is not helpful in restoring lost data, it is of no real use.
These are a few tips shared by Vasili Nikolaev, a tech writer in Magento 2 Security Guide – An Actionable Checklist for 2019 for Onilab, a Magento web development company.
Other things to bear in mind for securing a Magento e-store are using the in-built two-factor authentication; obtaining an encrypted connection; using a firewall to halt MySQL injection; and staying connected with the Magento development community to discuss any issues that may arise.
All this will ensure that your e-store does brisk business safely and securely. Still in order to ‘seal the deal’ it would be best to hire a Magento web development company that looks into all safety aspects. After all, safety is one factor that you cannot compromise with on the web.
