Ways to protect online transactions

The burgeoning trend of  online shopping has led to a sudden surge in the number of online transactions, and total online sales which were at about $1,471 bn last year are expected to reach $2,356 bn by 2018, as per Statista. In India alone there are 250 mn internet users, a figure that has grown by 14% as compared to the previous year. As a result, the need to protect online transactions has increased tremendously. Indusface recommends some tricks that organizations can deploy to secure their online business and transactions.

Smart Scanning for Vulnerabilities

Online threats that haunt most businesses include vandalizing of websites that may lead to blacklisting, loopholes and vulnerabilities that gives the attackers the access to sensitive information, malwares that can install themselves into systems and steal confidential data. Organizations need to opt for solutions that can provide automated application scanning combined with manual penetration testing to look for logic flaws in coding and app vulnerability.

Protect Your Mobile Apps

More and more consumers are now using mobile applications for online transactions. These mobile apps come along with a numerous security loopholes such as malwares, unsafe app capabilities, hidden processes, and complex code vulnerabilities. These problems only get worse with constant updates. Such issues can only be dealt with real-time mobile application penetration testing for malware detection, log analysis, Layer 7 assessment and more.

 Look beyond SSL                                                                                                                                                                    

Even though secure socket layers ensure safe and encrypted flow of information between a browser and a server, it is not the be all and end all of securing the web applications. A website may claim to be secure as they use 128 or 256 bit encryption and may even boast of a seal from an external certificate authority. But what the online retailers fail to understand is the fact that SSL cannot protect against application layer attacks. Businesses need to deploy solutions that can provide a multi-layer protection.

 Enhance Protection with Data Encryption 

Data encryption is important in the sense that it enhances the defense mechanism and protects the sensitive information. Encryption also reduces the risk of the hackers being able to crack the passwords.

Limit Access to Sensitive Information

It is important for organizations today to limit the access to sensitive information to personnel in the organization who really need to have the access to the same. Sharing information throughout the organization with employees who really don't need to use it increases the risk of the data being breached.

Fortify Web Applications 24 X 7                                            

The nature of web applications is intricate and needs to be frequently changed and updated. Constant updating leaves vulnerabilities and loopholes that hackers can very conveniently exploit to gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. In such cases, Web Application Firewall is the only way to virtually patch vulnerabilities like XSS and others. Smarter business solutions LIKE zero WAF false positives and continuous monitoring with adaptation for any changes to the application make the WAF an apt security mechanism.

 Ashish Tandon, chairman and CEO, Indusface says, "The new generation of customers has a greater inclination towards ordering things online as they can choose from an abundant range of websites at competitive prices. Sellers are also leveraging the online platforms to expand their businesses. Therefore, there is a need to ensure utmost security for these online platforms."