Six tips to keep your E-commerce safe

Online security breaches and e-commerce website hacks have been a common theme in mainstream media for the past several months.

From the Dyn attack that took place in October to the alleged foreign hacking of the U.S. election that’s been uncovered in the past few weeks, the tail end of 2016 has been rife with reminders of how vulnerable our online world truly is.

Here’s how to protect your e-commerce website.


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If you’re a website owner, the increased threats we’ve seen to online security are probably particularly troublesome as you map out your website strategy for 2017.

Fortunately, there are several simple ways you can increase your site’s security to significantly decrease the chances it will fall victim to a cyber-attack in the New Year.

1. Invest in a secure hosting service

Website owners often underestimate the importance of the decision they have to make regarding which web hosting service will support their websites. Although it can be tempting to go with the cheapest option, there are several key details you need to look for in a hosting service beyond the price. Security is arguably the most important of these details.

Your hosting service must provide a secure platform that not only keeps hackers away from your site, but also has the proper backup systems in place to get your site back up and running quickly should a security breach occur.

A secure web host provides a high uptime guarantee, a secure data center, sufficient backup programs, RAID data protection, and manual reboot. Check with your current hosting provider to ensure their service provides each of these details. If not, it might be time to a more secure hosting platform.

PC Mag offers a guide to the top web hosting service providers for 2017 if you need a little help narrowing down your choices.

2. Encourage users to protect their information

One of the most vulnerable points of a website is its login portals. Once a hacker has access to admin information or a consumer login, they can do quite a bit of damage. This is why it’s important to ensure that your site users are doing their part to keep your site secure as well.

Obviously, keeping a close eye on who has admin access to your site and how they handle their login information will be important, but you’ll also want to make sure consumers who visit your site and create logins are being cautious as well.

Encourage all of your consumers to update their passwords regularly.

You can either automate this or send reminders, but automating this process so that your system requires users to change their passwords every couple months or so will undoubtedly be more effective.

You should also require secure passwords for all login credentials on your site. Be sure that each password for your site is a minimum of 8 characters and has at least a number, a symbol, a lower case letter, and an upper case letter.

As for your site admins, they should be certain to be even more careful with the way they handle their login information to your site as they actually have access to the CMS. Be sure to go over the essential steps your employees should take to keep their login information safe.

3. Update your e-commerce website to SSL/TLS

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. TLS stands for Transport Layer Security. These are important security protocols every site should employ to secure their sites against hackers looking to intercept sensitive information as it is transported from the site to a server or another application.

SSL and TLS encrypt data between applications and servers to be sure that the information being processed remains secure as it is sent across an insecure network

If you’re not sure whether or not your site has an integrated SSL certificate, you can start by using an SSL checker.

If it turns out your site does not have one, you will need to upgrade it to make sure you have SSL or TSL protocols protecting your site.

Google offers a guide for site owners that shows how this process works.

4. Don’t store customer data you don’t need

This is pretty simple: if you don’t need to store customer information, don’t!

Any information you store on your site is vulnerable to hackers in the event of an attack.

To avoid the additional headache of consumer liability issues in the event of a hack, don’t store sensitive information if you don’t have to. Obviously, this will be a bit tricky for subscription-based sites, but most sites should try to avoid storing payment information or personal identification information.

By keeping sensitive information off of your site, you can more easily protect your consumers should your site be hacked.

5. Run site vulnerability tests

Identifying potential vulnerabilities on your site on a regular basis will help you maintain a secure site with as few points of entry as possible.

One of the best ways to make sure you keep up on vulnerability testing is to set up an automated process using scanning software. The right programs will scan your network and website to identify risks and generate prioritized lists that tell you which issues should be addressed and how you should go about fixing them.

Some systems are even capable of automating the process of fixing the issues identified in the scan on their own.

If you’re not familiar with how vulnerability scanning works, check out a few free programs first to get started.

6. Encrypt operational communications

Encryption is key not only to protecting your site via SSL/TSL protocols, but it’s also an important precaution you should take to secure any other online communications your company has.

For an e-commerce website, you should start by encrypting all emails between your company and its vendors – especially your credit card processor. Any information that might interest online thieves should be sent through an encrypted email, not a plain text email that could be easily accessed.

Windows IT Pro provides a pretty thorough write up to help guide you through the process of encrypting your emails.

Managing an e-commerce website in this age of online uncertainty can be a bit scary at times, but with the right tactics, you can significantly decrease your site’s chances of getting hacked.

Hopefully, these tips will help you secure your e-commerce site.

EMAIL SHOWCASING

6 Hints for Achievement in SMS Advertising

Instant message advertising has been prominent channel for some organizations in the course of the most recent couple of years. In the event that you haven't attempted this yet, it might be on the grounds that you have the wrong thought regarding instant message advertising. Utilized legitimately, it is an open door for greatly exact focusing on, and can be a viable device to come to a slippery yet lucrative statistic: the more youthful age.

A Couple of Cool Certainties About Instant message Advertising

Instant message promoting is regularly alluded to as SMS, or short informing administration. Consider a couple of these insights:

SMS is the most generally open advertising instrument, outperforming email for 18-24 year olds. 97% of Americans send or get no less than one content for each week.

Shoppers who are sent instant messages have a 40% higher transformation rate than the individuals who are not sent any instant messages.

As indicated by Versatile Showcasing Watch, SMS messages have a 98% open rate (contrasted with email's 20%).

In any case, in light of the fact that a message is opened and perused, it doesn't imply that your customer will change over. At the end of the day, you must be extremely specific about where these messages are going and how regularly you're sending them to potential clients.

Promotion

The Intricate details of Instant message Promoting

As examined above, SMS advertising can possibly extraordinarily develop your business if done effectively. Underneath records a few things you have to remember when you set out to make a SMS crusade:

1. Sending to the Correct Contacts

SMS would not be fruitful in the event that you didn't have anybody to get your messages. As indicated by the laws of the Phone Shopper Assurance Act, you can just send instant messages to the individuals who have selected to get them. The best thing you can do is give your clients the decision to get your messages by asking them amid a membership procedure on the web or asking them to content a specific term to your organization number.

Make certain that you let them know precisely what they can anticipate from your messages. At last, asking authorization will help guarantee that your messages will individuals who are intrigued and not irritated.

2. Be Clear and Brief

With regards to the substance of your messages, you need to ensure you are clear and to the point. Any message that is more than 160 characters will be separated by the telephone organization into different writings, and this could cause an assortment of issues including making the whole message undeliverable and bringing about additional charges for the entrepreneur.

Ensure you incorporate a suggestion to take action so perusers realize what is anticipated from them and what steps they have to take next. It's a workmanship thinking of a connecting with message and a CTA all in 160 characters, however it's in any event superior to anything Twitter, isn't that so?

A telephone number or URL are incredible cases of compelling CTAs. Maintain a strategic distance from slang or more all, be imaginative. You're by all account not the only business utilizing SMS showcasing so you need to ensure your writings emerge against the opposition.

3. Timing Is Everything

You clearly would prefer not to send messages past the point of no return or too soon in the day, yet you likewise need to ensure that you are giving your clients enough time to follow up on your message. Nobody needs to get a coupon after they've effectively made a buy. Consider composing the message ahead of time at that point sending it later.

You additionally need to consider the recurrence of your messages. You would prefer not to over-burden buyers with messages so they get irritated and begin to disregard/erase them upon receipt. Most organizations that utilization SMS showcasing just send one content for each week, and a few organizations send as meager as one at regular intervals and still get many nibbles.

4. Offer Assortment

Continuously ensure you're refreshing your messages. Not at all like different strategies where you can send a similar message twice (interpersonal organizations basically), you ought to never send somebody a similar instant message twice. Ensure you're continually switching up your message and keeping things fascinating.

It's additionally imperative to ensure what you're putting forth through SMS advertising is not quite the same as every other advancement you're directing. Buyers will have no motivation to pick in to SMS in the event that they can get a similar arrangement through email or online networking. The following are two cases from Tatango:

instant message advertising

5. Watch Your Database

Cell phone numbers get changed and erased constantly, so it's critical you check consistently to ensure you're sending your messages to the ideal individuals. This happens more frequently than organizations figure it out! On the off chance that your database is running low on contacts, ensure you're publicizing SMS on any limited time materials, both in print and on the web.

In the event that you have an organization pamphlet or flyer, it ought to incorporate your shortcodes. Send them out by means of email, print them on business cards, and don't be hesitant to say them verbally to customers. This article by Business person records a few different approaches to develop your SMS database.

6. Have a Quit Alternative

By law in the U.S., you need to tell individuals how they can quit accepting your messages. As a rule, you can simply place bearings in your message. Something like "content STOP to quit" works incredible. The following is a case of the instant messages I get from Bed Shower and Past that shows a quit alternative, as well as their recurrence and CTAs:

instant message quit

It's likewise critical that you screen and dissect the majority of your outcomes so you ensure you're sending the most important data to a significant gathering of people. Monitor measurements, for example, open rates, navigate rates, transformations, the quantity of endorsers and in addition the individuals who quit the administration.