E-Commerce Security FAQ: Protecting Your Online Store from Attack
E-commerce security generates consistent questions from retailers running online stores on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and custom platforms. This FAQ addresses the most common questions about protecting online retail operations.
E-commerce fraud costs UK online retailers over £1.5 billion annually — and most attacks exploit preventable technical vulnerabilities.
E-Commerce Security Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if my website has been compromised with card skimming code?
Card skimming code is designed to be invisible — you likely won't see it by looking at your site normally. Signs of compromise include: customer reports of fraudulent card charges after shopping on your site; sudden changes to checkout page files in your file system; new or modified JavaScript files in your site's code; unexpected external network connections from your web server. Prevention is better than detection: implement file integrity monitoring that alerts on unexpected file changes; regularly review all JavaScript files loaded by your checkout pages; and use a browser-based security scanner service to check for malicious scripts.
What is the difference between Magento 1 and Magento 2 security?
Magento 1 reached end-of-life in June 2020 — Adobe no longer releases security patches for it. Running Magento 1 means all vulnerabilities discovered since June 2020 are permanently unpatched, making your site highly vulnerable to Magecart and other attacks. If you are running Magento 1, migration to Magento 2 or another platform should be an urgent priority — this is a critical security risk, not just a technical upgrade. Magento 2 receives regular security patches that must be applied promptly (within days for critical patches).
What is a Content Security Policy and do I need one?
A Content Security Policy (CSP) is an HTTP security header that tells browsers which sources of scripts, images, and other content are permitted to load on your page. A correctly configured CSP prevents Magecart-style attacks from exfiltrating card data to attacker-controlled servers — even if malicious code is successfully injected into your site. For e-commerce sites, implementing CSP is one of the most effective technical controls available. It requires careful configuration to avoid blocking legitimate third-party scripts (analytics, chat, marketing tools) — but the security benefit is substantial. Most e-commerce platforms support CSP header configuration through their hosting environment.
How do we stop credential stuffing attacks on customer accounts?
Credential stuffing uses lists of username/password combinations from previous data breaches to try to access customer accounts on your site. Prevention requires: rate limiting on the login endpoint (blocking IPs that make too many failed login attempts); CAPTCHA or bot detection on the login page; monitoring for unusual login patterns (high failure rates, logins from unusual geographies or IP ranges); notifying customers of successful logins from new devices; and implementing MFA for customer accounts (even optional MFA dramatically reduces account takeover rates for customers who enable it). Consider also integrating with Have I Been Pwned's Pwned Passwords API to warn customers when they set a password that appears in known breach databases.
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