Identity fraud or online credit card fraud is not a myth. Ensuring that your e-commerce website is secure gives your customers the assurance that the information they pass to your website are safe and secure.

1. Confidentiality. Information retrieved from your buyers should only be available to authorized parties. As a website owner, you are responsible for the protection of information passed to your site. Confidential information should be isolated from external access and totally separated from the public.
2. Availability. While ensuring the security of data and resources; authorized users must have uninterrupted access to the system.
3. Data Integrity. The integrity of data must be preserved. This means that data must remain the same from the sender to the receiver and devoid of corruption. It is essential you back up data regularly in case of data corruption or server damage.

• Authentication
• Authorisation
• Encryption
• Auditing

Authorization is needed in order to identify the user, and the data they can access. This is usually done by restricting access to data or by programs within the web application.

Authentication is done by the utilization of username and passwords. This is to ensure that the user is who he claims to be.

Encryption of data is vital to enhance the security and privacy of customers and subscribers. Data encryption has been described as the scrambling of data into unintelligible characters using passwords. The encrypted file is restored to its previous state by using the correct password or key. Websites can be secured with the use of SSL (Secure Socket layer) certificates. When your web page is secured with a digital certificate, your URL (Uniform Resource Locator) will start with HTTPS (Hypertext Transmission Protocol with Secure Server) rather than the normal HTTP (Hypertext Transmission Protocol). A padlock icon is normally displayed at the lower right hand corner of the web browser.

Auditing involves records of operation. This includes log analysis and evaluation.

In summary, e-commerce websites should be secured in order to maintain confidentiality of customer information, ensure availability of resources to authorized users and maintain data integrity. When your website is secure, you gain customer trust. The main characteristics of a secure websites are authentication, authorization, encryption and auditing. Online buyers may look for security signs on your website before they submit sensitive information.Here are 3 main reasons why you need a secure e-commerce website: