Being able to provide customers with a secure ecommerce environment to make online purchases should be your number one priority as an ecommerce business owner. Without being able to protect online consumers it's impossible to have a thriving e-business. The best way to gain a customer's trust is to provide secure web browsing and protection of personal and credit card data during checkout. Unless visitors to your website know that their confidential information will be protected, they will not likely buy from you. There are several factors involved in e-commerce security, they include having secure hosting, obtaining SSL encryption and becoming PCI compliant. For the best possible level of protection, your online store should have all three.
E-commerce security starts with secure hosting. You must have an ecommerce hosting solution that has enough bandwidth and disk space to not only handle an onslaught of traffic, but also have the ability to hold all the products and data on your web site. In addition you must make sure that there is a strong enough firewall to protect all of that information. The final thing you should look at is the percentage of uptime the web host provider can guarantee. There are some that claim to have up to 99.9% uptime, which refers to how often web sites using their hosting are able to run smoothly. Therefore before you start worrying about your customers' private information you have to first make sure that all the elements of your online store is working properly.
The next important part of having e-commerce security is having SSL encryption. SSL stands for secure sockets layer and it is necessary for providing security over networks like the internet. This encryption process provides coding and decoding of sensitive data on a secure channel to keep hackers away. Having SSL encryption allows customers to share private information such as their mailing address, date of birth or credit card number without worrying about it being stolen. Currently all secure e-commerce websites should have a 128 bit encryption, because that level of encryption is the industry standard for processing payments. However some ecommerce solution providers are offering 256 bit SSL encryption. At the higher level, you get double the amount of protection and the code is even more difficult to crack.
The final and probably the most important aspect of having e-commerce security is PCI compliance. PCI is short for payment card industry, it's an independent body formed by the major credit card companies in order to create better online payment security. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB and Discover came together in 2006 to set a new standard for processing, storing and transmitting credit card data on the web. They ask that online merchants both big and small become PCI complaint so they can offer their customers the safest environment to carry out secure transactions. A number of people believe that being SSL certified is enough to protect against fraudulent charges and credit card theft so there are still a large number of e-commerce solution providers and merchants that are still not PCI compliant. Even though you can't be ordered by federal law to become compliant, many states are beginning to enforce this standard and cracking down on those who are not yet compliant. For those unfortunate enough to be punished, they are faced with huge fines, lawsuits and their right to accept credit cards will be revoked. So unless you are prepared to ruin your ecommerce business, you must choose an e-commerce solution with PCI compliance.
E-commerce security starts with secure hosting. You must have an ecommerce hosting solution that has enough bandwidth and disk space to not only handle an onslaught of traffic, but also have the ability to hold all the products and data on your web site. In addition you must make sure that there is a strong enough firewall to protect all of that information. The final thing you should look at is the percentage of uptime the web host provider can guarantee. There are some that claim to have up to 99.9% uptime, which refers to how often web sites using their hosting are able to run smoothly. Therefore before you start worrying about your customers' private information you have to first make sure that all the elements of your online store is working properly.
The next important part of having e-commerce security is having SSL encryption. SSL stands for secure sockets layer and it is necessary for providing security over networks like the internet. This encryption process provides coding and decoding of sensitive data on a secure channel to keep hackers away. Having SSL encryption allows customers to share private information such as their mailing address, date of birth or credit card number without worrying about it being stolen. Currently all secure e-commerce websites should have a 128 bit encryption, because that level of encryption is the industry standard for processing payments. However some ecommerce solution providers are offering 256 bit SSL encryption. At the higher level, you get double the amount of protection and the code is even more difficult to crack.
The final and probably the most important aspect of having e-commerce security is PCI compliance. PCI is short for payment card industry, it's an independent body formed by the major credit card companies in order to create better online payment security. Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB and Discover came together in 2006 to set a new standard for processing, storing and transmitting credit card data on the web. They ask that online merchants both big and small become PCI complaint so they can offer their customers the safest environment to carry out secure transactions. A number of people believe that being SSL certified is enough to protect against fraudulent charges and credit card theft so there are still a large number of e-commerce solution providers and merchants that are still not PCI compliant. Even though you can't be ordered by federal law to become compliant, many states are beginning to enforce this standard and cracking down on those who are not yet compliant. For those unfortunate enough to be punished, they are faced with huge fines, lawsuits and their right to accept credit cards will be revoked. So unless you are prepared to ruin your ecommerce business, you must choose an e-commerce solution with PCI compliance.
Before you start selling on the internet, it is important to have the correct security in place. Having sufficient bandwidth and disk space, daily backups, state of the art firewall protection and a 99.9% uptime is the first step in achieving e-commerce security. With the correct e-commerce solution, you can aim for heavy duty security with a 256 bit SSL encryption and PCI compliance.
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provides powerful tools for not only secure ecommerce, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!
What you need is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. One that lets you set up your store in minutes, and provides powerful tools for not only secure ecommerce, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce. Check out the best possible e-commerce solutions available at http://www.makeanonlinestore.com and try them out yourself absolutely free, no credit card required!