WordPress Security

10 Things You Need to Think About When It Comes to WooCommerce Security

Updated on: March 29, 2020

10 Things You Need to Think About When It Comes to WooCommerce Security

Article Summary

When it comes to shopping online, security is one of the main concerns you’ll be thinking about. After all, you want to make sure you’re spending your money in the right places while ensuring your personal details are secure, safe, and not at risk of being stolen. However, if you are someone running an online business where people are using your services, this means you need to be offering a secure and safe service for them to use. One of the most common platforms for running an e-commerce store is, of course, WooCommerce – a WordPress plugin and payment platform.

When it comes to shopping online, security is one of the main concerns you’ll be thinking about. After all, you want to make sure you’re spending your money in the right places while ensuring your personal details are secure, safe, and not at risk of being stolen. However, if you are someone running an online business where people are using your services, this means you need to be offering a secure and safe service for them to use. One of the most common platforms for running an e-commerce store is, of course, WooCommerce – a WordPress plugin and payment platform. Today, we’re going to explore the ins and outs of WooCommerce Security, detailing everything you need to know to have the best and the most secure online shopping experience.

1 – Choose Your Hosting Wisely

Your website’s security doesn’t start with the WooCommerce platform itself, but instead starts with your hosting provider. If your hosting provider is not offering a secure and encrypted service, or you’re not paying for it in your plan for woocommerce security, your website will be left vulnerable and unsecured.

Make sure you’re double checking with your provider and looking through your hosting plan to ensure you’ve got the security that will protect you and your customers.

2 – Implement Second-Step Login

You must be familiar with the 2-step login process, where a signup/login requires double clearance before giving way. Using 2-Step login technology is a great way to protect yourself because even if someone can guess your password, they need access to your email or phone, making it a lot harder to gain access. You’ll also be notified when someone tries to log in, meaning you can then change your password to log them out again. Therefore, this 2-step login process will enhance your woocommerce security.

3 – Secure from the Start

When you start building your website, you’re going to want to make sure you’re thinking about security from the word ‘Go.’ This means making sure you’re following all the tips in this post and making sure you’re keeping things tight, especially as you start including and installing plugins, and potentially have content coming in from lots of different sources.

When building your website, it’s important to make sure you’re only choosing plugins from reputable and reliable resources. This is because some plugins could contain security threats or backdoors, so you need to make sure you’re mindful of this and avoid it.

4 – Choose Strong Passwords

This point should go without saying, but you need to make sure you’re choosing strong passwords for your accounts which repulse any attempted hack. As a result improve your WooCommerce Security. What’s more, you should be changing your password every six to eight weeks to ensure they remain strong and unguessable.

Use a mixture of symbols, numbers, and letters (upper case and lower case) all to make sure your passwords remain impenetrable. Also, try to avoid legitimate words where possible and just use random letters that can’t be guessed.

5 – Keep Everything Updated

It’s vital to make sure you’re keeping all your plugins, your WordPress installation and everything else updated on your website because outdated themes plugins are weaker versions as compared to their updated counterparts. Also, this is one of the most used ways a hacker could endanger your website.

Moreover updated versions are nothing but mended versions in an attempt to eliminate the vulnerability. When a security bug or flaw is detected, developers of WordPress patch the bug and then update the entire system. This way, hackers and bots with malicious intent won’t be able to damage your website.

6 – Use a Security Plugin

While implementing all the tricks and tips above, it’s important to make sure you’re using a trusted security plugin on your website to help protect all the information and data, flowing through it. For example, you can back up your website in real-time, and scan all the files using anti-virus scanning included with the

Many Security Plugins are free with premium options and are included on most WordPress installations as standard. However, you’ll want to make sure that this is the case and that you are protected. Don’t just assume it’s included, make sure it is.

7 – Disable file editing

You can also disable Edit Files from the WordPress admin board. So, if a hacker actually succeeds in gaining access to your website and your WP admin, you will disable them from editing your files and damaging your data. This is an easy step for all users and all you have to do is add a line of code to your wp.config.php file:

define( ‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true );

8 – Disable Pingbacks and Trackbacks

This is a feature you don’t need to use for the WooCommerce store but it’s better to disable these because they might carry low-level DDoS attacks and send spam to your website. To do this, add the following lines to the .htaccess file:

# START XML RPC BLOCKING

<Files xmlrpc.php>

Order Deny,Allow

Deny from all

</Files>

# FINISH XML RPC BLOCKING

9 – Hide wp-config.php and .htaccess files

This may be an advanced process but it’s for people who are serious about helping their site be more secure. You should hide your website’s .htaccess and wp-config.php files to stop hackers. This should be implemented by developers because you need to create a backup of your site and do this carefully because any small mistake can make your website inaccessible.

To do this, here are things you need to do:

  • Backup your website.
  • Go to your wp-config.php file and add this:

<Files wp-config.php>

order allow,deny

deny from all

</Files>

  • Then, add this code to your htaccess file:

<Files .htaccess>

order allow, deny

deny from all

</Files>

Just keep in mind that you need to be very careful and that backup is essential before these steps.

10 – File Permission

To set this up, you should right click on the file you want to change the permission to and select Change Permission. Then a checkbox will popup and you should select the boxes you need and adjust your permissions. Confirm the changes and you are ready to go.

Related article: WordPress File Permission

Conclusion: WooCommerce Security

As you can see, there are lots of points to remember when it comes to running a website with WooCommerce and making sure WooCommerce Security is at its peak. Be aware of what you’re doing and how the website works, and you’ll have the best chance of protecting yourself and your customers.

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Nora Mork

Nora Mork is a tech journalist at Ukwritings. She shares her knowledge by speaking at public events and writing posts for online magazines and blogs.
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