A secure online store is comprised of many elements, with one of the most crucial being the security of your production servers. Properly securing these servers is fundamental to the overall safety of your online store. Find out why and how to ensure their protection.

The Polish e-commerce market is growing rapidly. According to PwC's report "The Prospects for E-commerce Market Development in Poland," the online sales market in our country is currently growing by 12% annually. This presents a lucrative opportunity for thieves and hackers who target poorly secured online stores.

Check out our latest article. We wrote about how IT infrastructure performance affects sales in an online store.

The role of the server in an online store

The server is the place where the online store "resides." It contains a lot of information, including sensitive data related to customers and products. A breach of the server often ends disastrously. It not only risks the loss of sensitive store and customer data but also leads to high fines imposed by relevant authorities, such as the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO). Additionally, the prolonged downtime caused by an attack on an e-commerce server can result in significant financial losses.

Common threats to e-commerce servers

The most common hacker attacks aim to steal money. These usually happen in two ways. The first is redirecting payments in the store to the thief's bank account. The second involves "cleaning out" a credit card by stealing the client's credit card data.

The theft of personal data is another major category of online theft. Thieves particularly seek data such as PESEL numbers and home addresses, which they often use to fraudulently obtain loans. As you can see, an unsecured online store poses a significant threat to its customers.

Methods of hacker attacks on e-commerce stores

Thieves use various tactics to steal data or money. Here are a few of the most common methods:

• Phishing: This is a scam involving a fake website that closely resembles the original. The fake site typically asks for payment card information or personal data. Phishing is often distributed through emails, social media messages, or shopping portals.
• DoS attacks: These attacks aim to paralyze a server or IT infrastructure by sending a large number of requests to the server hosting the website or online store. If the requests come from more than one computer, it is called a DDoS attack. The result of DoS attacks is the suspension of the service or store due to the overwhelming number of requests.
• Malicious software installation: There are many types of such attacks. The most basic is malware, a file designed to harm the server or website. A more advanced version is ransomware, a malicious file that gets deactivated only after a ransom is paid.

How to secure your server?

Several tools can help you combat online thieves and scammers:

• Monitor your IT infrastructure: Use monitoring tools that can detect anomalies, such as a suspiciously high volume of traffic that might indicate a DoS attack. This allows you to take defensive measures, such as saving server log data for police identification of the perpetrator or blocking users or geographical regions attacking the server.
• Migrate to public cloud: This measure is somewhat related to the first one. The public cloud has several advantages, primarily its ability to scale up or down based on the traffic in the store or service. Therefore, the cloud is less susceptible to DoS attacks.
• Conduct an audit: If you have any doubts about the state of your security, seek expert opinions. The audit of your online store should be comprehensive and conducted in a way that doesn't disrupt the store's operations. Unfortunately, disruptions can occur if the audit is performed by an inexperienced person.

Want to learn more about securing your server? Talk to us!