E-Commerce Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2023

The e-commerce industry is flourishing, and being an e-commerce business owner, securing your platform and customer data should be your biggest priority in 2023.

But the question is: Why is 2023 the time to reinvent your e-commerce security?

Well, most businesses relying on legacy systems and conventional tools/technologies aren’t aware that their customers or employees can still fall prey to cybercriminals continuously finding new loopholes.

On the other hand, hackers continuously create new traps through SQL injections or brute force attacks making innocent buyers victims of it. And if you wish to maintain your customers’ credibility and thrive in business, you must put your best foot forward in preventing and containing common e-commerce security threats.

Let’s look at some of the cybersecurity trends of 2023 and beyond and learn how to protect your e-commerce business from them:

• DoS and DDoS Attacks: A denial of service (DoS) attack refers to a cyberattack where hackers try to shut down your online store by flooding irrelevant/junk traffic and making it unavailable to genuine users. And a distributed DoS (DDoS) attack is an advanced form of a DoS attack where attackers use multiple devices/botnets to infect your platform with malware. This leads to a shutdown of your e-commerce store.
• Brute Force Attacks: Brute force attacks aren’t new, but the number of e-commerce sites being subjected to them is exponentially increasing. Brute force attacks involve a hacker guessing and trying several passwords before finding the right one. Mostly they succeed when users set commonly predictable passwords.
• SQL Injections: Your e-commerce store is most vulnerable to fraudulent SQL commands submitted via a sign-up form. And the number of SQL injection attacks is rising, causing e-commerce stores to lose millions of dollars annually. These cases are expected to rise in 2023 and beyond.

While these attacks may seem identifiable and familiar, the frequency of these attacks in the e-commerce landscape is quite problematic. Let’s look at some of the best measures your business can take to reinforce its e-commerce security.

How to Reinvent Your E-Commerce Cybersecurity Posture

1. Perform regular SQL checks.

Regular SQL checks are among the most underrated aspects of securing your e-commerce website. Ensure you turn on daily SQL checks for robust security from SQL injection attacks. Various tools and software are available online that automatically monitor and check your e-commerce platform.

2. Never collect or save unnecessary customer information.

Remember, attackers steal what you have, not what you don’t! Hence, you shouldn't save any unnecessary customer data that can be compromised and later on impact your customers. Using encrypted checkout while processing online payments ensures your website has no loopholes in tracing sensitive customer information.

3. Properly configure perimeter defenses.

You may have a robust firewall, but it's useless if it’s not configured correctly. Relying on a third-party hosting provider has benefits but poses severe cybersecurity threats if the e-commerce platform isn’t configured correctly. Therefore, you must ensure you get certain security services and are configured properly with your hosting. These include DDoS protection, data loss detection/prevention, antivirus/anti-malware protection, etc.

With the e-commerce market experiencing a surge in demand over the past couple of years, specific security threats that require adequate attention have lingered. Therefore, you must understand the importance of incorporating and implementing the proper security measures to ensure your business remains safe and your customers remain protected and loyal.

Deepak Gupta is the chief technology officer and co-founder of LoginRadius, a customer identity solution that manages user authentication, identity verification, social login, SSO, login security and more.