WooCommerce Security Guide: 17 Tips to Secure Your Online Store

As a business owner, running a business smoothly is always a difficult task for entrepreneurs. Yes, it becomes more difficult if you own an eCommerce business! You must have to manage all the processes from inventory management to occasional/seasonal deals and most importantly the security of your online business. That’s the biggest pain point nowadays!

Today, we are focusing on the security of the eCommerce business built explicitly on WooCommerce. Securing a WooCommerce store is essential to protect your customers’ data (personal and financial information), prevent hacking attempts, and avoid downtime or other issues that can affect your business.

Here, our eCommerce tech experts share some tips to help you secure your WooCommerce store…

Let’s get started then!

Why Your WooCommerce Store Needs a Greater Security?

There are several reasons why your WooCommerce store needs greater security…

5 Main Reasons to secure your WooCommerce Store

1. Protecting Customer Information: Your customers trust you with their personal and financial information when they make purchases at your store. It’s your responsibility to protect that information from theft, fraud, and other security breaches. If your store is hacked, customer data can be compromised, leading to loss of trust, reputation damage, and potential legal liability.
2. Avoiding Downtime and Lost Sales: A security breach can cause your store to go down, resulting in lost sales and revenue. If your store is down for an extended period, it can also hurt your SEO rankings and affect your long-term business growth.
3. Preventing Malware Infections: Malware can infect your store through vulnerabilities in your software or from infected files uploaded by users. Once on your store, malware can cause a range of issues, including data theft, redirects, and spam.
4. Complying with Data Privacy Regulations: Many countries have data privacy regulations that require you to protect personal data and report any data breaches. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in fines and other legal consequences.
5. Protecting Your Reputation: A security breach can damage your reputation and make customers wary of doing business with you in the future. Word of mouth is powerful, and if your customers hear that your store is not secure, they may choose to shop elsewhere.

How to Identify Whether Your WooCommerce Store is Hacked or Not?

If you suspect that your WooCommerce store has been hacked, there are several signs that you can look for to confirm your suspicion:

• Unusual or Suspicious Activity: Check your store for any unusual or suspicious activity, such as unknown users or unauthorized changes to your store’s code or content.
• Strange or Unfamiliar URLs: If you notice strange or unfamiliar URLs on your store, it could be a sign that your store has been hacked. Check your store’s URLs for any unusual characters or parameters that are not part of your store’s normal structure.
• Traffic or Analytics: Monitor your store traffic or analytics to see if there has been a sudden or significant increase or decrease in traffic, or if there are any unusual patterns in your store’s visitor behaviour.
• Search Engine Warnings: Check to see if search engines like Google or Bing have flagged your site for containing malware or suspicious content. Search engine warnings can indicate that your store has been hacked and is being used to distribute malware or spam.
• Outdated or Suspicious Plugins: If you notice outdated or suspicious plugins on your store, it could be a sign that your store has been hacked. Malicious plugins can be used to inject malware or spyware into your store or to steal sensitive information from your customers.
• Unusual Email Activity: Check your email accounts to see if there have been any unusual login attempts or if you have received any suspicious emails. Hackers can use your email accounts to gain access to your store or steal sensitive information from your customers.

17 Best WooCommerce Security Tips

1. Keep WooCommerce and Its Plugins Updated

Regularly update your WooCommerce and all plugins to ensure that you have the latest security patches and features.

2. Use Strong Passwords

Use strong passwords for all user-level accounts, including WooCommerce, WordPress, and hosting accounts. Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters to create strong passwords.

3. Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider

Choose a hosting provider that offers good security features, including malware scanning, SSL certificates, and regular backups. Also, 24×7 customer support is a must-have.

4. Install WooCommerce Security Plugins

Use a security plugin like Sucuri or Wordfence to help protect your store from hackers and malware.

5. Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security to your WooCommerce store. This will require users to enter a code generated by an app or sent to their phone in addition to their password.

6. Limit Login Attempts

Use a plugin to limit the number of login attempts to your store to prevent brute-force attacks.

7. Regularly Backup Your Store

Create regular backups of your WooCommerce store so that you can restore your store in case of a security breach or other issues.

8. Enable SSL Certificate

An SSL certificate is required for WooCommerce security for several reasons:

• Encryption of Data: An SSL certificate encrypts all data transmitted between the server and the client, such as customer information and payment details. This ensures that the data is protected from unauthorized access and cannot be intercepted by hackers or other malicious actors.
• Authentication of Websites: An SSL certificate also verifies the identity of the website, ensuring that customers are communicating with the correct website and not a fraudulent site that may be attempting to steal their information.
• Compliance with Regulations: Some regulations, such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), require websites that handle sensitive data to have an SSL certificate. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in penalties and fines.
• Improved Customer Trust: Having an SSL certificate provides customers with the assurance that their information is secure and can help build trust in your brand. Customers are more likely to purchase from a website that has an SSL certificate than from one that does not.

9. Update Your PHP to the Latest Version

Updating PHP and using the latest version of it for your WooCommerce security is important for several reasons:

• Security: Older versions of PHP may have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers to gain unauthorized access to your website and steal sensitive information such as customer data, financial information, and other confidential information. By updating to the latest version of PHP, you can ensure that your website is protected from these vulnerabilities and that your customer’s data is kept safe.
• Performance: The latest version of PHP is optimized for performance and can help your website load faster and run smoother. This can improve the overall user experience and make it easier for customers to navigate your website and make purchases.
• Compatibility: WooCommerce and other plugins and themes that you may be using on your website are often updated to support the latest version of PHP. By updating to the latest version of PHP, you can ensure that your website is compatible with the latest versions of these plugins and themes, which can help prevent errors and other issues from occurring.
• Future-proofing: As new features and functionalities are added to WooCommerce and other plugins and themes, they may require the latest version of PHP to work properly. By updating to the latest version of PHP, you can future-proof your website and ensure that it will be able to support new features and functionalities as they are released.

10. Be Aware of Brute Force Attacks

Brute force attacks are a common type of attack on WooCommerce stores and can be dangerous if not properly protected. In a brute force attack, an attacker tries to guess a user’s login credentials by repeatedly trying different combinations of usernames and passwords.

11. Change the Login URL

Change the default login URL of your site to make it more difficult for attackers to find your login page. You can use a plugin to change your login URL.

12. Use a Firewall (WAF)

Install a firewall to block malicious traffic from reaching your site. A firewall can help detect and block brute-force attacks.

13. Scan Your Store for Malware Regularly

Scanning your WooCommerce store for malware is an essential part of maintaining security. Malware is any software designed to cause harm to your site or steal sensitive information from your customers. Malware can be introduced to your site in many ways, including through plugins, themes, or infected files.

Here are some reasons why you should scan your WooCommerce store for malware:

• To protect customers’ information
• To prevent the website from being blacklisted
• To ensure the website’s availability
• To avoid the legal issues

14. Spam Filter Setup is Always Advisable

Applying a spam filter on your WooCommerce store is an important step in protecting your site and maintaining the quality of your content. Here are some reasons why you should apply a spam filter:

• To reduce the annoying content spam
• To protect against malware containing links to malicious sites
• To improve the user experience
• To enhance the overall security of your WooCommerce store

15. Keep Eyes on the Activity Log of Your Store

Checking the activity log of your WooCommerce store’s security is important for several reasons:

• To detect the suspicious activities
• To identify the security breaches
• To ensure compliance
• To track the store’s performance

16. Check and Adjust Your FTP Settings

Checking and adjusting FTP details for WooCommerce security is important for several reasons:

• Preventing Unauthorized Access: If an attacker gains access to your FTP credentials, they can potentially modify or delete files on your site, which can result in data loss, site downtime, or even a complete takeover of your site. By regularly checking and adjusting your FTP details, you can prevent unauthorized access to your site.
• Mitigating Risks of Brute Force Attacks: Brute force attacks, where attackers repeatedly try different combinations of usernames and passwords until they find the right one, can be mitigated by regularly changing your FTP login details. This makes it harder for attackers to gain access to your site through this method.
• Ensuring Secure File Transfers: When you use FTP to transfer files between your computer and your web server, the data is transmitted in plain text, which can be intercepted and read by attackers. By adjusting your FTP settings to use secure protocols like SFTP or FTPS, you can encrypt your file transfers and make them more secure.
• Compliance with Regulations: Some regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), require website owners to take steps to protect personal data from unauthorized access or disclosure. Regularly checking and adjusting your FTP details can help you comply with these regulations.

And last but not least!

17. Disable Pingbacks and Trackbacks

Pingbacks and trackbacks are methods used by WordPress to notify other websites when a link to their content is added to a post or page. While pingbacks and trackbacks can be useful in some cases, they can also pose a security risk to your WooCommerce store.

Disabling pingbacks and trackbacks in WooCommerce can help improve the security of your WooCommerce store in several ways:

• Reducing Spam: Pingbacks and trackbacks can be used by spammers to send unsolicited messages and links to your site, which can affect your site’s reputation and harm your SEO.
• Preventing DDoS Attacks: Pingbacks and trackbacks can be exploited by attackers to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on your site, which can overwhelm your server and cause it to crash.
• Improving Site Speed: Pingbacks and trackbacks can slow down your site by creating additional requests to external sites. Disabling them can improve your site’s speed and performance.
• Enhancing Security: Pingbacks and trackbacks can be used to scan your site for vulnerabilities and exploit them to gain unauthorized access to your site.

Wrapping Up Here…

By following these tips, you can be ensured that your WooCommerce store is secure and protected from potential security threats. If you are facing such security issues or feel that your store is at risk, feel free to schedule a meeting with our security tech experts. We are always happy to make your business process smooth if such security issues are your concern.

Girish Panchal

Technical Architect

A Technical Architect, proficient in WordPress, Drupal, Laravel, and DevOps tasks, crafts robust IT solutions with a blend of expertise and versatility in web development and infrastructure management.

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