Security is paramount to an online merchant?s website. If you desire to take your current business online, or to start an online store then you?ll want to know some of the ways you can secure your site from the various dangers that exist online. The biggest threat to online merchants is of-course hacking.
This is an online version of the real world burglary, the problem with this security threat is that it?s very complicated and high tech and given the fact that an online store can?t be guarded like the traditional brick and mortar business with an armed sentry, then you?ll need to learn what you options are.
Hacking in one way involves a person compromising your sites security in order to steal your customer?s credit card information. Hackers is always done with a malicious intent and usually involves a skilled person; when successful hacking attempt can result in a huge loss to your business and reputation as an only merchant.
It?s for this matter that custodians of eCommerce developed a number of technologies aimed at safeguarding online merchant stores from attacks, top on the list is a technology known as HTTPS or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol and SSL or Secure Socket Layer. In simple terms HTTPS technology is a protocol for transfer of secured data over the internet.
But what?s the difference between HTTPS and HTTP?
HTTPS with an extension ?S? for Secure transmits data through port 443 as opposed to HTTP which transmits data via port 80. HTTPS transmits data in a secured format, meaning the data packets channeled though port 443 are encrypted to prevent them from being read by network sniffers, they?re received via SSL, HTTP on the contrary transmits data in plain text, which makes it susceptible to attack.
Most online shoppers are informed of the above and will look out for HTTPS in the resource locator plus the padlock icon on the status bar of the site before providing their Credit Card Details and doing any transactions. Meaning that if your online storefront lacks HTTPS; then you definitely lose customers. Nothwistanding this, there several websites that still collect credit card data using HTTP something that is very dangerous in this age of sophisticated internet crime.
As mentioned above HTTP does not encrypt data and it only transmits data in plain format. Say you have an online store using HTTP and you collect customer transaction details such as credit card information, then this gives a hacker easy time intercepting the information as it travels via the World Wide Web using packet sniffer. Please note that there are plenty of free sniffer software out there which increases the danger.
Transmitting Customer data via HTTP is similar to broadcasting that information to the whole world. Your customer will only realize that their information was stolen when their Card becomes maxed out by the thief.
In order to secure your pages, you?ll require the following
* A web server is mandatory; get an Apache web server with ?mod_ssl? which offers SSL data encryption.
* A dedicated IP address, used by certificate providers to authenticate the certificate.
* SSL certificate from authorized SSL provider.
Get in touch with your web host if you?re not sure about the foremost two items, they?ll tell you if it?s possible to employ HTTPS on your site. Once you get the HTTPS certificate, your web host will be required to configure if for you in your server to ensure that pages are only accessible via HTTPS. Once that is done then you can proceed with your site development.
Sammy Kirkland in website development and design. If you?d like to know more about shopping carts, please visit our big commerce review page and our wonderful pinnacle cart eCommerce review
Author: Sammy Kirkland
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Source: http://businesswebhost.com.au/how-to-secure-your-online-business/
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