Magento 2 security topics play a significant role in the success of every online business. Nowadays, this topic becomes even more important due to such a huge number of different types of hacker attacks and sensitive data leaks all over the world. The duty of every website manager is to make sure that the key security rules are followed and the website is well-protected. The following article describes the most critical security issues and measures required for every website.
E-commerce platform
When considering an e-commerce business, choose a platform that is developed according to best security practices and where the provider implements regular security improvements and upgrades. Fortunately, Magento 2 is one of the best platforms which follows high-security standards. It’s available with the important security features such as protection from XSS attacks and CSRF plus possibility to isolate public resources from platform code and many other security configurations are present in the platform. Moreover, new upgrades and security patches are regularly received from Magento to keep the platform updated.
Strong passwords
A simple, but regularly ignored rule. Use of strong passwords (with capital letters, special characters etc) is a must, ensuring each and every account has a complex and unique password. This can be applied to admin panel, payment applications, hosting access, personal accounts, email etc.
Back-end URL
An admin panel URL cannot be something obvious. Its highly suggested to create URLs with more complexity, for example: https://websitetest.com/abcmmn_plan_sdrs instead just something simple like https://websitetest.com/admin.
Additionally, it’s recommended to protect admin access by IP addresses whitelist. In that way, the admin panel is accessible only from predefined locations (networks).
Two-factor authorization
No matter how complex a password created, there is always a chance of theft. With two-factor authorization an additional security layer can be set that requires, in addition to a password, temporary token sent to your personal device/mobile etc.
Regular Magento upgrades/security patches & installations
To keep a website protected upgrade the platform regularly and apply all recommended security patches released by Magento. More information about the importance of Magento patches and upgrades is detailed in our previous articles.
Extension upgrades
A major benefit of Magento platform is that the functionality can easily be extended by either developing custom logic or installing 3rd party extensions. Therefore, it’s strongly recommended to keep all extensions up-to-date and apply all new security patches and their updates. In that way, it can be assumed, extension code will not contain any security vulnerabilities.
Strong protection from hosting
When choosing a hosting provider for your website it’s necessary to check which security policies are being implemented by your hosting company to ensure that the best security standards are being followed from the hosting side too.
MageReport tests
MageReport tests are much loved. Test reports can be quickly and easily run to detect known security issues and vulnerabilities related to the Magento platform. As a result – information can be quickly and effectively communicated to development team to implement fixes.
Captcha on the store
This rule sounds very simple but has become increasingly important for every website. Captcha prevents spam-bot registration on the website as well as protecting accounts from brute-force attacks. Captcha is a part of native Magento 2 functionality and can be easily enabled from the admin panel to create user/login, checkout registration, contact us, forgot password forms.
HTTPS connection
Installation of SSL certificate on a website – this ensures https connection (it’s recommended for all website pages) and therefore encrypted “way” between a web server and a browser. In addition, Google search engines prioritize websites with SSL certificates for better ranking in search results. What’s more important – users of the website with https connection feel safer when placing orders.
Saving of sensitive information on the store
There should not be any extensions that can save unencrypted sensitive data of customers. For example, saving passwords & credit card information in plain text to a database can lead to serious security issues if hackers get access to them.
Security audit
The store can be audited regularly by reviewing access logs, active users, Magento installation directory for correct access permissions etc. Such audits help detect security vulnerabilities and protect the store before some critical issues arise.
Magento security scan
Magento introduced a security scan tool that helps monitor the real-time security status of your store and add all required improvements as soon as we find out about potential vulnerabilities.
Data back-up
Daily database backups are highly recommended. This practice would help restore most recent information in case of some critical issue corrupting website data.
Security for everyone
Last but not least, ensure colleagues within your own organization follow the same security standards because many potential security issues can be hidden in own working environment. More information on this topic is described in our article.
We hope that this article will help you stay strong and safe with your Magento website. You’re welcome to share your own recommendation on how to keep your website secured.