If you have plans on starting an online business with WooCommerce, among a lot of other considerations, security is paramount. Starting from product additions to fixing the bugs at the earliest, everything is managed and streamlined by the professionals offering you all-round WooCommerce development services.
But beyond that, one thing that your WooCommerce developer will also focus on priority is security. As of today, WooCommerce holds astounding dominance in the eCommerce market and has a noteworthy market share. But with this popularity also comes the risk of cyberattacks or hacking attempts.
Therefore, adding a unique interface and a responsive set of features isn’t enough! Your WooCommerce developer should be instructed to impose no compromises on the security parameters. You should be at the forefront to supervise if all necessary features or parameters are implemented for the smooth running of your business.
So, this article is about educating you on some of the security tips that you must consider including alongside your WooCommerce development services.
What will be the Repercussions of Compromising Security in WooCommerce?
Suppose you have hired a WooCommerce developer and have requested them to set up an online store faster, at the cost of compromising the security. In that case, you are leaving behind a lot of vulnerabilities. You must know that not just WooCommerce but no platform is immune to security vulnerabilities.
As a result, the vulnerabilities will trigger security breaches and allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to the online store. This way, your sensitive customer information will be compromised. Not just that, but if experts offering WooCommerce development services didn’t emphasize on the security aspects, your intellectual property might also be impacted.
Eventually, you will lose out on your competitive advantage and might incur patent infringement or copyright issues. Data or security breaches are ultimate corroding agents for an online business, as they might cause financial losses and disrupt the operational flow. Beyond reputational and financial impacts, the vulnerabilities will hamper the usual flow of operations.
As a result, your attention from the core business operations will be deviated, and you will keep on connecting to your WooCommerce developer to drive you out of this situation, which will further deteriorate your productivity.
Therefore, when you seek WooCommerce development services, ensure that the security factors aren’t being side-tracked. It is because that will put your business on the verge of security compromise.
What are the Common Vulnerabilities that WooCommerce Might Experience?
Some of the vulnerabilities that you or your WooCommerce developer might leave behind in the pursuit of creating or running an online store are:
1. Outdated WooCommerce or WordPress Version
If you aren’t instructing your WooCommerce developer to check on the latest version of the platform periodically, you are leaving a big loophole for the cyber attackers to leverage. Running your business on the outdated or older WooCommerce version will trigger slower load times and might also hamper the overall UX.
Not only that, but older versions might also give rise to compatibility flaws with the themes or plugins. Due to this, your site will incur unwanted damage and might lead to financial loss or legal hassles. Not only that, but outdated versions of WooCommerce with poor security settings might open the back doors for data breaches.
2. Inefficient Themes or Plugins
Whether you are using outdated plugins/themes or are relying on unrecognized sources for integrating such extensions, there is a big risk of compatibility issues. Thus, the user experience quotient will degrade, and the functionalities will also be compromised, leading to slower load times and frequent errors.
Not only that, but when the themes or plugins are from unknown sources, there is a high chance that the malware is seeping through them to your WooCommerce settings. Your data might be compromised, and you might incur financial and operational loss for the business.
3. Brute Force Attempts
One of the things that is crucial for the experts to add to the WooCommerce development services while ensuring security is protecting your store from brute force attempts or attacks. A brute force attack is better known as a threat where the attacker constantly tries to gain access to a better eCommerce Platform for Your Store system, without authorization. The attackers do it by adopting all sorts of combinations of passwords and usernames till they finally get the right combination.
If your WooCommerce developer has created your store with weak credentials protecting the login barrier, cyber attackers are going to target it with brute force. Therefore, your WooCommerce development services must be backed with strong login credentials to prevent system disruption, data breaches, reputational damage and others.
What are the 5 Security Tips to Keep Your WooCommerce Store Protected?
The vulnerabilities specified above are just a few of the many issues that might arise if your WooCommerce development services aren’t backed by proper security aspects. Remember, securing the store isn’t just essential for your business success, but also to ensure protection of customers’ data. Therefore, here are a few tips that you must implement alongside WooCommerce development services to ensure utmost security:
1. Pick the Best Hosting Provider
One of the first things you must convey to your WooCommerce experts while creating a store is to pick the ideal hosting provider for your business. Irrespective of whether you are using self-managing servers or are relying on the hosting providers, your WooCommerce experts must ensure the security aspects correlated to it.
You can prefer adding firewalls, use SSH credentials, change the file accessibility permissions and do other such alterations as suggested by your WooCommerce experts. When you are choosing a hosting provider, it is better to go for a managed WooCommerce hosting solution, ideal for providing you with advanced security solutions like SFTP & SSH access, encrypted servers or DDoS protection.
2. Make Use of Stronger Passwords for the User Accounts
Your WooCommerce experts will also suggest stronger passwords for the user accounts, which will create an effective security practice crucial for protecting your store from any kind of unauthorized access. With stronger passwords, your store will be resilient to brute force attacks or common password-guessing techniques.
To encourage the use of stronger passwords, there’s a built-in feature of WordPress, namely “Better Passwords”, which is responsible for generating stronger passwords for the users and enhancing overall security. If you face any difficulties, you can connect with the WooCommerce development company experts and let them help you set stronger passwords.
3. Initiate 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication)
With the 2FA established, you will be able to adopt high-end security for your WooCommerce store in terms of accessibility. The WooCommerce development experts will help you enable this for your store and will create a proper defense against unauthorized access or data breaches associated with corporate systems.
When you have enabled 2FA, it is a highly recommended and practical security practice that will significantly improve the protection of sensitive information and user accounts. You can consider it as an additional defense layer for the store, which will repel phishing attempts, cyber threats or password theft issues, creating a fortress of security for the customer or business data.
4. Create Regular Back-Ups
You must hire WooCommerce development experts to maintain regular backups of your store to ensure your crucial data won’t get compromised even if the store gets attacked. It’s because you will be able to attain a quick restoration of the important data right after the issue is resolved.
You can take the help of your WooCommerce development company and integrate a specific plugin that will automatically create backups, reducing manual efforts. This will allow you to build a proper backup policy, to enhance the security prospects of your store. With the right plugin, integrated by your WooCommerce development experts, you can restore your lost data in just one click.
5.Prefer Adding SSL Certificates
Finally, you can navigate the WooCommerce store development services for adding SSL certificates to that of the store, which is crucial for the pages that handle account logins, checkout, creation and others. SSL encryption is highly crucial for securing the sensitive details that are exchanged between the users and your site.
Google Chrome, as a browser, marks non-SSL sites as “Not Secure”, for which the brand reputation hampers. Therefore, if you don’t want the same for your WooCommerce store, SSL is of utmost necessity. Do connect with your WooCommerce development company and get your SSL encryption certificates embedded.
Parting Words
Right from the initiation of your WooCommerce development services, you must prioritize security as your biggest consideration. It’s because, no matter how successful your business becomes, if it is vulnerable for the cyber attackers to take advantage of, your store will end up being compromised.
Talk to the experts offering Woocommerce store development services and discuss with them the security attributes they have to offer. Use the tips specified above to be clear on whether or not the experts have the capability to integrate them all. Depending on whether you consider them reliable, go ahead and get your store ready from all fronts.
May it be astounding UI, responsive features or high-end security, your WooCommerce store should streamline your operations by eliminating almost all types of hurdles.
