Why Penetration Testing Is Essential For All Ecommerce Websites

As an Ecommerce business owner, you face a lot of challenges along the way. One particular challenge you’re likely to face, is security.

How secure is your site and when was the last time you had it tested? If you’ve never actually tested the site for potential security threats, now is definitely the time to do so. Here, you’ll discover everything you need to know about penetration testing and why it’s important.

What is penetration testing?

As vital as it is, many businesses have no idea what penetration testing even is. Put simply, it’s a series of methods which are used to determine how secure a website or computer system is. What’s unique about this type of testing is it actually hacks into your site, just like a hacker would.

That doesn’t sound good does it, but unlike a hacker, it won’t actually do anything harmful to your site. It’s basically there to establish any current weaknesses in your system. Not only does it show you what the issues are with your security, but it also shows you what effect it would have on your business if the weakness was exposed by a hacker.

Why is it important?

Carrying out penetration testing on your site has three main benefits. Firstly, it helps you to take action to prevent future issues that would be caused if the site was hacked into. However, it’s the money and reputation benefits which are the most important.

If a hacker were to get into your system and steal customer data, it would prove to be extremely costly. In serious cases, you could be taken to court and ordered to pay extensive fines. Then there’s the damage it would do to your reputation. Once customers hear your website has been hacked into, they’ll be extremely reluctant to do business with you again. What’s more, it could end up costing you new customers as word gets out about the breach.

So, penetration testing by Nettitude Ltd can not only save you a lot of money, but it can also help you avoid losing your company.

Overall, cyber-attacks aren’t something most Ecommerce business owners think about, but they are a real danger you’ll want to be prepared for. Penetration testing is a fantastic way to determine how at risk your site is and what improvements need to be made.