How to prevent your eCommerce store from getting hacked
eCommerce businesses are always at risk from cybersecurity attacks; this guide will talk through the ways eCommerce businesses can protect themselves
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Half of businesses (50%) report having experienced some form of cybersecurity breach or attack in the last 12 months. This is much higher for medium businesses (70%), large businesses (74%) and high-income charities with £500,000 or more in annual income (66%). - Gov.UK
What is Cyber Security
eCommerce businesses are at risk from cybersecurity attacks, as they are such a goldmine of information, as they store, process, and transmit large amounts of personal and financial data.
Cybersecurity is how individuals and organisations reduce the risk of cyberattacks. The core function of cybersecurity is to protect devices and/or online services and to prevent unauthorised access to this personal data.
Why should eCommerce businesses care?
In 2024, there were approximately 7.78 million cybercrimes for UK businesses and approximately 116,000 non-phishing cybercrimes in those 12 months.
No platform is completely immune to cyberattacks. In 2025, CloudFlare was hacked, causing millions of Shopify eCommerce stores to go down; now, in 2026, Magento eCommerce stores have recently suffered attacks.
Cyberattacks can target a wide range of victims, from individual users to enterprises or even governments. When targeting businesses or other organisations, the goal is to access sensitive and valuable company resources, such as intellectual property (IP), customer data or payment details.
Much like how physical retailers employ security staff or resources, eCommerce businesses also need to explore cybersecurity as a critical part of their business.
The most common types of cyberattacks for eCommerce
Phishing
Involves sending fake messages that appear to come from a legitimate source to steal money, gain access to sensitive data, or install malware. This is the most common attack and affected 84% of eCommerce businesses in the UK.
Impersonate
A targeted social engineering scam where a criminal poses as a trusted person, brand, or executive. The goal is to trick the victim into sharing sensitive data, transferring money, or giving up login credentials. This is the second most common attack, affecting 35% of eCommerce businesses.
Malware
A breach of software, including viruses and spyware, which has affected 17% of eCommerce businesses in 2024.
The cost for eCommerce businesses
The UK Government found that in 2024, the average cost to a small individual business was around £1,205 per attack or breach, with medium to larger businesses suffering a loss of £10,830 per incident.
However, for businesses where there was an outcome of lost funds or ransom paid, the average cost for a small individual business rose to £4,590. With medium to larger businesses, this cost rose to £40,400.
So what can eCommerce businesses do?
Eight simple steps can drastically reduce the risk an eCommerce business faces from a cyberattack:
1. Enable Multi-factor authentication for all Admin Accounts
In Magento, two-factor authentication (2FA) is a built-in security mechanism as standard. This means that users will need to use two authentication factors to access the admin panel.
Magento two-factor authentication adds an extra security layer to your admin panel, ensuring it can withstand a brute-force attack if one were to occur, providing an additional layer of security to deter and defuse a cyber attack from hackers.
2. Proactively monitor for Threats
Numerous companies out there can provide monitoring for your website; one such example is Turaco Labs.
They offer a comprehensive range of cybersecurity solutions tailored to detect and protect against the threats posed to e-commerce businesses.
Turaco Labs has launched “ThreatView”, which provides continuous threat protection for e-commerce businesses. https://www.turacolabs.com/blogs/threatview-in-magento-adobe-commerce-cloud-environments
They have also created a free website security scan link that can be a good first step to identifying risks to your Magento eCommerce site. https://www.turacolabs.com/scan
3. Enable a web application firewall
A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a security tool that filters, monitors, and blocks HTTP traffic between a website or web app and the internet. It sits in front of your store and filters malicious requests before they reach Magento, and can block known exploit patterns, bad bots and injection attempts.WAFs work by adhering to a set of rules or policies that allow it to determine what website traffic is deemed as safe or malicious.
By deploying a WAF in front of a web application, a shield is placed between the web application and the Internet. While a proxy server protects a client machine’s identity by using an intermediary, a WAF is a type of reverse proxy, protecting the server from exposure by having clients pass through the WAF before reaching the server.
4. Employ a Cyber Security Company
There are some really great cybersecurity companies out there, and we will always recommend the best fit for our clients; however, Wind & Kite are proud to be an official partner with Turaco Labs.
There are also free guides out there for UK businesses that can help with the basics if you are unsure of where to start.
https://cybertoolkit.service.ncsc.gov.uk/
5. Ensure only people who need access have access
Your warehouse staff don’t require admin access, so don’t give a blanket access pass to all your team. Restrict administrative access to only those select few who really need it. And make sure everyone uses a unique admin account; don’t allow the team to get lazy and all use the same account.
Additionally, enable IP whitelisting on your admin account, meaning that only people who are physically in their work environments can access your site, negating the risk of attacks.
6. Implement automatic scanning
At a simple level, it's a virus scanner. The aim of doing this is to catch attacks quickly and effectively, so that your development team can respond and react to protect your eCommerce site.
There are loads of companies out there that will provide this; here at Wind & Kite, we suggest Succuri and Foregenix, but do your research and find the company that best suits your business needs.
7. Be up to date on Security Patches
Apply any security patches promptly. They are there to protect your site from any known vulnerabilities and have been created to prevent those cracks from becoming any bigger.
The issue is that once a Patch is released, it’s like a beacon to the world that there is an issue and a vulnerability that exists, and new bad actors will start to use these vulnerabilities on stores, making it a much higher risk of attack. Updating promptly makes sure that the vulnerability isn’t used on your store.
One of the best things about the Magento community is that, because the software is open source, you have a global group of people actively working together to make eCommerce safer and more secure, with a vast global network of testers and peer reviewers at your disposal.
8. Partner with the right Agency
E-commerce businesses should partner with a web development agency that puts cybersecurity at the top of its priority list. We know that attacks can and will happen, but having a development team that is proactive before an attack happens is just as important as having a team that is reactive when one occurs.
If you want to learn more about how Wind & Kite could improve your eCommerce site security or just want some more advice, get in touch with us below.