How To Improve Security for Your Online Adobe Commerce (Magento) Store

Ecommerce Feb 14, 2025 12 mins read By Tanisha Sharma

Building an eCommerce store with Adobe Commerce (Magento) takes months or maybe even years. What all of us expect is sales to boom, customers seeing you as brand, and everything seems perfect. What if something goes wrong? Your brand’s reputation is jeopardized, your e-commerce store is hacked, all transactions are halted, and your customer data is compromised.

Doesn’t that sound scary? All of your efforts and hard work are futile.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a hypothetical scenario.

In 2023, more than 50% of UK eCommerce companies reported being cyberattacked. Owing to its many features, the eCommerce store with the most installations was Magento. While all this provides advantages for your online business, these very things can also put you on the watch list of most cybercriminals, just waiting for a weak online retailer. Inserting harmful codes, stealing private client data, or even shutting down operations can be done with ease.

You must be terrified at this point, but there are plenty of things you can do.

What Makes a Magento Store Vulnerable?

One in eCommerce can never say no on Magento being a powerful eCommerce platform, but like any other software, it has few weak points that hackers can use to exploit. Following are the common vulnerabilities:

Outdated Magento Versions: If you are using an old version of Magento, you are underwater. Unable to benefit from the most recent security updates. Because hackers can now exploit known flaws in out-of-date versions, your store is their ideal target.

Learn about a few Must-Have Magento Extensions that must have!

Brute-force attacks can be enabled by using weak passwords or granting multiple users unrestricted admin access. Cybercriminals gain unauthorized access to your store by using automated tools to guess login information.

Unpatched Security Flaws: Magento regularly issues security patches to address vulnerabilities. However, because hackers specifically target unpatched systems for attacks, failing to implement these updates as soon as possible exposes your store to cyber threats.

Third-Party Extensions: While third-party extensions enhance your store’s functionality, poorly coded or outdated extensions can introduce serious security loopholes. Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to inject malware or steal sensitive data.

Lack of HTTPS Encryption: If your store doesn’t have an SSL certificate, all customer data, including payment details and login credentials, is transmitted in plain text. This makes it easy for hackers to intercept and misuse the information.

Secure Hosting: If the hosting environment is insecure, it can put your store at risk because vulnerabilities existing in secure sites may also exist in yours. Thus, to secure your Magento store, pick a hosting provider that presents strong security features.

The first step toward protecting your online store is to familiarize yourself with those vulnerabilities. Now, we will see how to mitigate these risks and protect your Magento store from cyberattacks.

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Essential Security Tips to Keep Your Magento Store Safe

If you own a Magento store, security should be your primary concern. Because cyber threats evolve over time, a single vulnerability could put your entire company at risk. Don’t worry, we have you covered. These ten clever, doable tips will help you keep your Magento store secure.

Always Keep Your Magento Version Updated

Think of updates like vaccinations for your store. Adobe frequently releases security patches to fix vulnerabilities, and skipping these updates is like leaving your front door wide open for hackers.

How to Update without loss:

Make it a habit to set automatic update notification so that no relevant patch will be missed.

Ensure that the staging environment is to test an update before it goes live.

As patches come for security issues, apply them right away so as to always stay ahead.

Implementing Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and Strong Passwords

Weak passwords? This would practically give your store’s keys to hackers. Buy stronger passwords to give the cybercriminals the opposite chance and step up the barricades, one of which is in the brute-force guessing credentials category.

Ways to Best Implement Secure Passwords:

Employ long, complex passwords, comprised of uppercase, lowercase, numeric, and symbolic characters.

Require the passwords of admin accounts to be changed periodically.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) never hurts as a supplementary layer of security.

Limit the number of wrong attempts to protect against brute-force attacks.

Administrator Panel Security

The Magento admin panel is a hacker’s favorite target. Leaving it at the default setting, say /admin, is to keep a neon sign flashing – “Hack me!”

Ways, You Can Secure It:

Change the default admin URL to something unique (i.e., /securepanel123 instead of just /admin).

Restrict access to the admin section based on particular IP addresses.

Enable SSL encryption (HTTPS) to protect login credentials and sensitive data.

Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Think of a Web Application Firewall (WAF) as a security guard standing between your store and the bad guys. It filters out malicious traffic before it can do any harm.

Why You Need a WAF:

Blocks DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and cross-site scripting (XSS).

Detects and stops suspicious activities in real time.

Even speeds up your website by filtering out junk traffic.

Top WAF Services: Cloudflare, Sucuri, Astra Security.

Enable HTTPS & SSL Certificates

Would you shop on a website that isn’t secure? Probably not. SSL encryption ensures that all data between your site and customers is encrypted, protecting login credentials and payment info.

How to Set It Up:

Get an SSL certificate from a trusted provider like Let’s Encrypt, DigiCert, or Comodo.

Force HTTPS across your entire site (not just checkout pages!).

Regularly check your SSL certificate expiration to avoid security lapses.

Regularly Scan for Malware & Vulnerabilities

Cyber threats evolve fast. That’s why regular security scans are a must—they help catch and remove malicious code before it can wreak havoc.

Recommended Security Scanners:

Magento Security Scan Tool (Adobe’s official tool)

Sucuri Site Check

Google Safe Browsing

Secure Payments & Protect Customer Data

Hacker’s love stealing payment details, but you can make their job much harder by using secure payment gateways.

Best Payment Security Practices:

Use PCI-DSS compliant gateways like PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net.

Never store credit card details on your server—it’s not worth the risk.

Enable fraud detection tools to spot suspicious transactions before they become a problem.

Restrict File Permissions & Disable Directory Indexing

File permissions determine who can access, edit, or execute files. Leaving them wide open is a security disaster waiting to happen.

Security Configurations:

Set file permissions to 644 and folder permissions to 755.

Disable directory listing in your server settings.

Regularly audit and remove unused extensions—outdated plugins are a hacker’s dream.

Back Up Your Store—Regularly

No security measure is foolproof. If the worst happens, backups ensure you can restore your store quickly.

Backup Best Practices:

Automate daily backups.

Store backups in a secure, offsite location.

Test your backup restoration process regularly—because a backup is useless if it doesn’t work.

Cybersecurity Training for Your Team

The security of your store is dependent on the people running it. A huge probability that data breaches occur is due to human error, so training your team is quintessential.

Topics to Include:

Phishing scam identification.

Social engineering techniques to avoid.

Secure customer data handling practices.

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Difference between the strong store and weak Magento store

Here’s a comparison table between a Secure Magento Store and a Weak Magento Store:

Aspect	Secure Magento Store	Weak Magento Store
Hosting Environment	Uses robust hosting with firewalls, encryption, and DDoS protection. Automatic security patches applied.	Hosting lacks strong security measures, leaving the store open to attacks like DDoS.
User Permissions	Regular review of user roles and permissions. Follows the principle of least privilege.	Excessive user permissions are unchecked, increasing the risk of exploitation.
Log Monitoring	Regular log reviews for suspicious activity with automated alerts for unusual behavior.	Logs are not regularly monitored or checked for suspicious activity.
Secure Development	Follows best practices for secure coding, conducts security audits and code reviews.	Custom code may have vulnerabilities; no regular security checks or audits on custom features.
Software Updates	Regular updates for Magento, plugins, and extensions to patch known vulnerabilities.	Often outdated software or plugins run, leaving the store vulnerable to new exploits.
Backup and Recovery	Reliable backup system in place, with regular backups stored securely. Quick recovery in case of breach.	No reliable backup system; in case of breach, recovery is slow or impossible.
Compliance and Legal	Complies with data protection laws (e.g., GDPR). Clear privacy policies to protect customer data.	May not comply with legal standards, risking data breaches and legal consequences.

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Final Thoughts

Magento security means much more than just another item in your list of things to do. It is about protecting your hard work and the customers dependent on it, so your business can prosper in an ever-changing digital environment. Cyber threats aren’t going away, and strong security foundations are its defense.

Every little step matter, from selecting a secure hosting provider through restricting user access, log monitoring, and good coding practices. But if you ignore security, it could result in data breaches, financial losses, and permanent reputational damage. Hackers don’t take days off, and neither should your security efforts.

The good news? It’s never too late to start. Stay proactive—update your software, monitor for suspicious activity, and implement security best practices. Your Magento store’s safety isn’t just about compliance—it’s about building a business that customers can trust for the long run.