One thing is clear regarding Ramadan in 2021: B2C commerce in the MENA region is going to take place digitally due to COVID-19.
Consumers are planning to continue shopping online for their friends and family during the Holy Month. According to Facebook’s research, 51% of those celebrating Ramadan will seek great deals. This means you need to focus on meeting customers where they are during Ramadan 2021—online.
While Ramadan is known for celebration, large events also have a dark side linked to security breaches which can threaten your eCommerce store and clients. Major global events, such as holidays, elections, and natural catastrophes, lead to vulnerabilities on your site, as hackers use the general public’s confusion and lack of attention to their advantage.
To the dismay of all retailers, cybercriminals will be doing their best to scam unknowing shoppers and gain access to critical site information, personal and financial data during the Ramadan shopping season. In this article, we describe how to lower the risk of unnecessary damage during the Holy Month.
Minimising the Risks of Cybersecurity Threats During Ramadan
Cloudflare has reported that hacking and phishing attacks are up 37% month-on-month since the COVID-19 crisis began, and the danger only increases during a large event like Ramadan.
With the volume and magnitude of cyber attacks growing by the day, it’s clear that your store’s security is paramount. Failing to address this opens your business up to a whole host of threats, including data breaches, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, or even a site being entirely down. These threats, if left unmitigated, cause irreversible reputational harm.
However, by addressing some essential areas, you can be safe in the knowledge that you have done everything within your power to keep your online store safe and secure. There are numerous ways to get your site ready for Ramadan, and here are just a few things you can do to get your site prepared.
Companies need to make sure that cybersecurity is top of mind.
This can be the last thing to prioritise during a large shopping event, but ensure that access to your infrastructure, security practices and processes have not been compromised due to changes in your operations.
Understanding trends and risks are key.
Having a clear picture of vulnerabilities that may influence your business will help you deal with potential threats. These are some of the most common risks: hacking, phishing, malware, identity theft and keylogging. Are your people well aware of those risks, and do they know what to do? And more importantly, do they know what not to do, or is it only your IT department that understands the threats? Make sure to educate your employees. It’s critical that everyone understands basic cybersecurity principles and is on the lookout for suspicious activity, and follows the security policies and procedures you have in place.
Put security policies in place and ensure they’re adapted to online shopping.
In addition to policies, a response plan also needs to be reviewed, modified, or created.
Make sure your software, tools, and hardware are up-to-date and patched.
If your employees use their own devices, make sure that those are also safe and that security policies and processes are followed when using those.
But how can you minimise these threats before Ramadan?
A fast, easy to use and visually appealing site is a must to bring your customers in. But when it comes to keeping the customers returning, security is everything. Without it, you’ll lose all trust and your reputation will struggle. Encrypting data transmissions, setting password requirements, protecting systems from attacks and constantly reviewing your security setup as part of your audits are just a few ways you can help to protect the security of your business and your customers.
Fortunately, at Vaimo, we take the load off you, working behind the scenes to ensure that your security is up-to-date and effective. We work with both B2C and B2B clients across various industries to drive their digital commerce success. As part of our services, our dedicated hosting and security teams work to ensure that your digital security is safeguarded at all times.
Make sure you have adequate tools in place to protect your website. Global companies have entrusted Vaimo with their success during peak sales season for over a decade. The Ramadan sales period comes with intense planning, communication, and numerous challenges, and the stakes are high: one error could lead to a six-month loss of sales or worse.
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One of the things Vaimo considers extremely relevant prior to large events is a security audit. This audit provides you with a comprehensive report and practical insights to improve your website’s security. We perform a point-by-point walkthrough of your infrastructure, security policies, and your implementation of security best practices.
Vaimo’s Security Audit helps your business stay ahead of potential threats by exposing deficiencies in your system. Simply being unaware of vulnerabilities or information leaks in your business does not remove liability — that’s why it’s extremely important to detect gaps in your security measures. In addition to uncovering areas of weakness in your security, we will provide you with recommendations for improving your security measures and processes.
Manual Assessment
We carry out a manual assessment of your web application, testing for SQL injections, OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities, static-code analysis, as well as unauthorised files and folders, which can be used by an attacker to gain access to your system.
Infrastructure Security Testing
We scour your infrastructure to discover deficiencies or errors in design and implementation, and we provide you with clear remediation and improvement recommendations. We customise our testing specifically to your hosting provider, we report user access misconfiguration, and we analyse log events to get a full understanding of the project.
Vulnerability Assessment
We perform a vulnerability assessment which includes an external vulnerability scan of your eCommerce environment, followed by our suggested remediation and mitigation steps. In some cases, a more in-depth internal vulnerability scan is performed.
Since the eCommerce projects are very complex and include a lot more than just proprietary code, often combining 30+ tools to get the best results possible, it is highly likely to not fully understand how the security mechanisms of each of those tools work, particularly when combined.
We’re prepared to identify and examine vulnerabilities to ensure your system cannot be compromised and your sensitive data—and your customers—remain safe. Contact our team to ensure a successful Ramadan.
