Here are 9 safety tips for WooCommerce to keep your store secure by Custom Woocommerce Design & Development Services. In order to help you quickly select your to-dos, we have broken up our safety tips into categories, but the first category is different.
WooCommerce Security Plugins:
Security can take a tonne of time and be a daunting prospect. Of course, some people spend a lot of their time blocking IP addresses or listing legitimate firewall visitors.
But, it is best to have a safety layer and then tweak and tweak after most threats have been deleted.
Install a Security Plugin:
The most critical step you can take to secure your WooCommerce store. When installing a security plugin, you will scan your website and alert you to security threats.
MalCare, a WooCommerce-compatible security plugin, will allow you to:
- Check your store.
- Please clean it up in minutes.
- Block brute force assaults and other dangers.
You cannot take the chance of installing an unstable plugin because WooCommerce deals with sensitive data. To keep your WooCommerce site safe from hackers, you’ll need a firewall.
Because hackers’ strategies are improving all the time. You’ll need a scanner that can detect disguised and concealed malware.
Get an SSL Certificate:
An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that certifies a website’s identity and security. By using SSL to secure your website, you can ensure that any data you provide is encrypted while in transit.
Most websites need an SSL certificate, but users need to enter sensitive information. Such as:
- Bank account numbers.
- Passwords.
When you use SSL to encrypt your website, a little padlock appears next to the URL. This padlock verifies that your site is genuine, and any fakes can be easily identified because they lack the padlock. The URL is also changed from HTTP to HTTPS.
Setting up SSL on your website is simple. If you use a reliable hosting company, they will bundle it with your website. Or, you can put it up in minutes using Simple SSL.
Once you have an SSL certificate for your WooCommerce site, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced. You can enable ‘Force Secure Checkout’ from this page.
This will strengthen the security of your e-commerce site and transactions.
Apart from the security aspect, Google has pushed for websites to migrate to HTTPS. To the point where it will now penalize websites that do not use SSL.
If your website does not have SSL enabled, you will receive a “Site not secure” warning in the SERPs. This, of course, will affect your online store.
Woocommerce Login Page Security:
The login page acts as a target for brute force attack bots, and it is frequently attacked. Bots are the worst form of parasites since they try to get unauthorized access to your website. But they also use up your site’s resources in the process.
As a result of this indiscriminate use of resources, legitimate users will find it difficult to access your site. The situation is bleak.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication:
Implementing 2-factor authentication is another approach to safeguard your WooCommerce login page.
By enabling this, anyone attempting to log in to the WordPress dashboard will be required to enter both their username. And a secure password that is generated in real-time. This might be a one-time password texted to a phone number. Or a code created by Google Authenticator or another software.
This prevents the possibility of hackers guessing passwords or exploiting weak passwords.
Change Your Default Username “Admin”
Changing your username and password from the default is one of the simplest and fastest ways to improve WooCommerce security. This can be accomplished by creating a new user, logging in as that user, and removing your previous account.
Go to User > Add New to alter your WordPress admin name.
Fill in all the required information, making sure to use a unique username.
Create a new account and choose ‘Administrator’ from the list of user roles available in WordPress.
After that, log out of your wp-admin account and sign in with the new one. The former ‘admin’ user account can now be deleted. All your before created posts will be transferred to the new account due to this action.
To replace your username, you can use plug-ins like Admin Renamer or Username Changer.
Limit Login Attempts:
Brute force assaults are a typical way for hackers to get access to your website. A brute force attack looks for the password by testing every possible combination of words and digits.
Hackers can break weak passwords in minutes using newer technology like:
- AI.
- Machine learning.
While changing your login and using a strong password can help prevent this, it is not infallible.
As a result, the most straightforward option is to restrict login attempts from specific IP addresses.
If one IP address, for example, tries to log in several times. You can set a limit on how many times that IP address is permitted to log in. MalCare, a powerful security solution, will take care of this for you. MalCare’s firewall protects your website from harmful bots. Moreover, attackers by blocking brute force attempts.
Implement Geoblocking:
Many bots come from specific nations. You know where you expect real visitors to come from because you manage your website.
Bots are likely to be the source of a rise in hits from a different country in your website logs. Of course, you could have been conducting ad campaigns as well, so tread when applying this advice.
It is possible to restrict access to your website for entire countries. Although MalCare features a geo-blocking feature, we don’t recommend utilizing it. Careless usage of good bots, such as Googlebot, can cause them to be blocked.
WooCommerce User Management:
From the admin dashboard, there are a few actions you should do to secure your website. From a security standpoint, the suggestions in this section are non-negotiable. We recommend that you use all of them.
Need Strong Passwords for User Accounts:
It’s not uncommon for store accounts to be complicated. If your website has many authors, they are offered admin access (even though it is not recommended).
But, if everyone gets access to your admin panel, your store will be far more susceptible. After all, the less secure a password is the more individuals who know it.
There are two options for dealing with this. The first is to maintain yourself accessible, which is often impossible. The second alternative is to enforce the usage of strong passwords across the board.
The quickest method to achieve this is to use the Force Strong Passwords extension. This extension requires everyone enrolling to generate a strong password. The strong passwords consist of a combination of:
- Uppercase and lowercase characters.
- Numbers.
- Symbols.
Standard words will not be accepted as passwords due to the update, making passwords very difficult to hack. This is a good precaution to take, especially if you have a collaborative store.
Implement a User Management Policy:
There are occasions when many administrators are required to operate your WooCommerce store. This is somewhat related to our previous point. It’s always a good idea to examine users to determine if any need to be removed.
Furthermore, you should always follow a policy of least privilege. What is the bare least of control a user should have over your website to do their job? They should have no more than that level of authority.
Use an Activity Log:
When many people are making updates to your website, it’s essential to stay on top of them. A helpful tool for accomplishing this is an activity log. You can see who did what and when on your website with full logs.
Hackers try to gain access to admin accounts to cause havoc. So, if an admin account is acting (in the logs), it’s a good sign that something is wrong.