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Protecting your e-commerce site from hackers

Stealing Money

E-Commerce sites form a large chunk within the web hosting market. As e-commerce sites are widely used by various entrepreneurs, this led to a surge in data theft. A number of data transactions takes place on these websites and contains extremely confidential information. There’s a vast number of users with information relating to their credit cards, email addresses, physical addresses and much more. Without beefing up on security on a website owner’s behalf and the users, it can result in data theft performed by hackers. Data breaches don’t only take place within corporate spaces or financial services, but within small business as well. Breaches are frequently occurring in various news reports with a 43% in total coming from small businesses.

Invest in third party fraud-protection services:

Third party fraud is where an individual or a collective uses or creates accounts in order to clone an account with another’s details. This is associated with identity theft and one can face severe consequences. This can be a challenging and daunting task for businesses to detect and to stop.

An extra layer of protection is without a doubt a no-brainer. When it comes to security, going the extra mile is always worth the effort. The protection offered by e-commerce building platforms serves as a good entry point in terms of security. It can help with identifying potential risks or suspicious activity but going through with next step is entirely up to you.

It is a gamble one has to take. There could be a mistake in terms of the incorrect email address or postal address entered when the user created the account. In a situation like this, security software filters out these user profiles. It could result in an actual hacker or a potential client that could’ve entered their details incorrectly. Visitors that have been rejected before can cost you potential revenue. Taking the time to review risky visitors is costly and requires a certain expertise to filter them out properly. Proper validation is needed when one is faced with such a situation.

Compliance with PCI/DSS standards

PCI/DSS stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. It’s a set of requirements that are used by companies ensuring that the credit card information is stored in a secure manner. The objective of these standards are to improve account security when transactions are performed. The PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) ensures that the security of card holders’ information are secured at all times. It contains informative and practical material with frameworks and tools to help companies maintain the level of security needed. Some requirements for PCI/DSS standards are password protection, firewall set-ups, encryption of transmitted data and protection of card holder data to name a few.

Use HTTP with SSL

For those that aren’t familiar with SSL, it’s an abbreviation for ‘Secure Sockets Layer’. An SSL is a certificate that acts as a protective layer between a website and a browser. An SSL certificate is used to authenticate a website’s identity and to encrypt any information being passed through the website. An SSL certificate is crucial when it comes to considering filtering and blocking hackers that would want to intercept information during the checkout process.

Setting up your credit card with limits

Credit cards are fairly easy to steal which contains card and cvv numbers. The details contained on your card are mostly your initials, card number and CVV digits. These details are considered as a first level of security and should be kept to yourself. The most important of all would be the cvv number. CVV stand for Card Verification Value. The CVV number is required for performing online transactions. The 3 or 4 digit number can be found at the back of your bank card. Normally, when your card gets stolen or when the details are captured, hackers or criminals will try to guess your CVV code. When setting credit card limits, one’s usage of funds is restricted therefore, if anything does happen to the card your bank account won’t be completely wiped. In some cases, the card issuer can issue a refund due to an unauthorized transaction. Credit card limits can be set nationally and internationally.

Our Online Store builder packages includes a free SSL certificate and is equipped with the latest PHP and MySQL versions integrated caching and HTTP/2. Find out more about about our Prestashop online store builder that are loaded with benefits and tailored to your needs.

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WHAT IS IMAGE OPTIMIZATION?

Image optimization is a process of providing high-resolution images that has all the right dimensions & formats while keeping it at the smallest size as possible.

In today’s fast paced world of activity, the internet has shifted the way in which we perceive information. We tend to lean more towards the use of strong images rather than wording. According to research, on average more than half of your website’s weight includes images. The average loading time for your website should be kept under two seconds. Users tend to leave your website if a page loads for too long.

There are various ways in which image optimization can be done. A few of the methods would be to resize your images, caching or you could compress the size of your images.

  • The importance of image optimization:

    a) Increasing your website’s loading speed
    Your page speed is the time it takes for your web page to load completely. By increasing your page’s loading speed, users will be more appreciative towards your website and it prevents the loss of organic traffic. A key principle to consider is the optimization of images.

    b) Improve your SEO ranking
    Google’s ranking system is based on a broad range of components but one essential component would be your loading speed. The higher your page ranks, the more organic traffic & exposure will be generated. In the world of digital marketing, the importance of search rankings remains relevant up till today. In essence, image optimization holds a great amount of weight within your SEO ranking.

    c) Increase sales
    The greater your ranking in terms of SEO, the greater the exposure for your website. This in turn could possibly generate more sales leads for your business. Majority of shoppers who aren’t happy with a website’s web page speed or the performance will most likely not visit the site again.


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THE IMPORTANCE OF EMAIL SECURITY

  • The importance of email security

    Email security protects you and your business against risk. Confidential information such as your credit card, bank account number or a social security number etc. can be protected through email security.

    Email security are various safety measures that protects email accounts, content & communication against suspicious activity.
  • Types of email threats

    – Phishing
    Phishing is one of the most commonly used methods of attacking online users. It is usually portrayed as a trustworthy entity that attempts to obtain sensitive information such as your passwords, usernames or your credit card details.

    – Ransomware
    Ransomware is a type of malicious software that’s used by hackers. This happens when a user is demanded a ransom in order to gain access to their data.

    – Spam
    Spam attacks are done through various mediums but the most common one used are communication channels such as emails. It makes the medium impractical because it has been bombarded with senseless information.
  • Tips on strengthening your password

    – Use more than 12 characters
    – Use special characters (%$#@)
    – Use uppercase & lowercase letters
    – Avoid personal or obvious information

    Example of a strong password: P!Zz@Gam3r23$$ (Unrelated to someone’s name or birthday)
    Example of a weak password: Sandy28051994 (Name and birthday used with no special characters, numbers etc.)
  • What we offer at Hostking

    We offer SSL certificates which allows your data to be transmitted securely by establishing an encrypted connection. Spamexperts is another service offered by Hostking which filters out any form of spam & viruses before it reaches your network. Siteblock is a daily malware scanner that identifies threats & known malicious code.
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Connect With Your Customers

connect with yor customers

The customer is always right. It’s imperative for any business to know their customer inside and out so they can build a long term relationship that encourages loyalty, and increases revenue.

So how is it done:

1. Put the customer at the forefront of everything you do
2. Get closer to the customers emotionally.
3. Listen, really listen
4. Demonstrate respect

Emotionally engaged customers are:

1. More likely to recommend you
2. More likely to become a repeat customer
3. Less likely to shop around
4. Less price sensitive

3 Psychological triggers that matter to happy customers

1. Personal Touch
– Creating a memorable Moment for customers often takes shape through some form of personal touch

2. Reciprocity
– Reciprocity is what motivates customers to send a tweet, share their experience with a friend or continue being loyal customer to you.

Note: It’s 6 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing customer happy

3. Being a VIP
– People are willing to spend more with your business if you give them a feeling of importance.

Note: 9 out of 10 consumers would pay more to ensure a superior customer experience.

What happens when there is a disconnect

1. Abandon Purchase
– 78% of customers bail on a transaction because of a poor experience

2. Quit doing business
– 86% of consumers quit doing business with a company due to poor service experience.

3. Negative Tweets
– On Twitter, over 80% of customer service related tweets are negative

4. Want Fast Responses
– 93% of customers expect a response within a hour

How to accomplish this?

1. The customer is always right even when they are wrong
2. Offer a 365 day return policy if possible
3. Deliver happiness by focusing more on the experience than the product/service
4. Surprice gifts sich a free shipping or immediate activation

Conclusion

Never take your customers for granted because they are the lifeblood of your company. From going above and beyond to make each of them feel special to helping them out even when it may not make sense, putting your customers first will help you increase your revenue in the long run.

What I learned the hard way is that if you don’t truly care about your customers, it will be hard for you to connect with them. When you care about people, you’ll naturally want to do your absolute best to help them out.

This is the same reason why we respond to all tickets fast. We do it because we want to.

This article is thanks to Neil Patel and Quicksprout