BigCommerce Security Features

As an e-commerce business owner, ensuring your online store’s security is crucial to maintaining customer trust and protecting sensitive data.

A secure shopping experience builds credibility with customers and helps prevent costly breaches that could harm your business.

BigCommerce is known not only for its flexibility and scalability but also for its comprehensive security features.

Why Security Matters in E-commerce

Security breaches in e-commerce can have devastating effects on your business, from financial losses to damage to your brand’s reputation.

As an online retailer, you handle sensitive information such as customer payment details, personal data, and order histories.

A security failure could result in data theft, fraud, or legal repercussions.

BigCommerce understands these challenges and provides robust security features designed to protect your store and its data.

1. PCI Compliance

One of the most critical security features offered by BigCommerce is its Level 1 PCI compliance.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of regulations that govern how businesses handle credit card information.

Being PCI compliant means that BigCommerce meets the industry standards for securely processing, storing, and transmitting cardholder data.

Key Features:

• PCI DSS Level 1 certification (the highest standard for e-commerce platforms)
• Secure payment processing through trusted gateways
• Compliance with strict security standards for protecting customer payment information

How It Protects Your Store:
BigCommerce handles all payment transactions securely, ensuring that your store complies with industry standards.

This minimizes the risk of data breaches and helps protect your business from the financial and legal implications of mishandled payment data.

2. HTTPS and SSL Encryption

Every BigCommerce store comes with built-in HTTPS support and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates.

HTTPS ensures that the data exchanged between your store and your customers is encrypted, preventing unauthorized access or interception.

SSL certificates validate your website’s identity, assuring customers that they are shopping on a secure platform.

Key Features:

• Built-in SSL certificates for secure data transmission
• HTTPS encryption on all pages, not just checkout
• Security validation for customers visiting your site

How It Protects Your Store:
SSL encryption prevents hackers from intercepting sensitive customer information like credit card details or login credentials.

By securing all pages of your site with HTTPS, BigCommerce ensures that every interaction between your customers and your store is protected, improving customer confidence in your brand.

3. DDoS Protection

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks aim to overwhelm your website’s server with excessive traffic, causing your site to crash and become inaccessible to customers.

DDoS attacks can lead to significant downtime, lost revenue, and damage to your reputation.

BigCommerce includes built-in DDoS protection to defend your site against these attacks.

Key Features:

• Protection against DDoS attacks by absorbing and deflecting malicious traffic
• Cloud-based mitigation to ensure continuous uptime during an attack
• Monitoring tools to detect and respond to potential threats in real-time

How It Protects Your Store:
BigCommerce’s DDoS protection ensures that your store remains online and operational even during an attack.

By deflecting malicious traffic, the platform helps minimize the impact of DDoS attacks, ensuring that your customers can continue to shop without interruptions.

4. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to your BigCommerce admin account.

When 2FA is enabled, users are required to verify their identity through a second factor, such as a code sent to their mobile device, in addition to their password.

This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access to your store’s backend.

Key Features:

• Two-step login process with a unique code sent to a registered device
• Protection against phishing and password theft
• Option to enforce 2FA for all users and staff members

How It Protects Your Store:
Even if a hacker manages to steal your login credentials, 2FA prevents them from accessing your BigCommerce account without the second verification step.

This adds a crucial layer of protection to safeguard your store from unauthorized access and potential data breaches.

5. Automatic Platform Updates and Patches

Security vulnerabilities can emerge as new threats and technologies evolve.

Regular software updates are essential for keeping your e-commerce platform secure.

BigCommerce handles these updates automatically, ensuring that your store is always running on the most secure version of the platform.

Key Features:

• Automatic security patches to address vulnerabilities
• Regular software updates to enhance platform security
• No downtime or disruption during updates

How It Protects Your Store:
With automatic updates, you don’t have to worry about manually applying patches or missing out on important security fixes.

BigCommerce keeps your store secure by continuously updating the platform to protect against new threats, ensuring that your data and customer information are always safe.

6. User Roles and Permissions

For stores with multiple staff members, controlling who has access to sensitive data and specific parts of the admin panel is crucial.

BigCommerce allows you to assign user roles and permissions, giving you complete control over which team members can access certain features and data.

Key Features:

• Assign custom user roles for staff members
• Limit access to sensitive data, such as financial reports or customer information
• Track user activity in the admin panel

How It Protects Your Store:
Limiting access to sensitive areas of your store reduces the risk of internal data breaches or accidental changes that could impact security.

By assigning specific roles and permissions, you ensure that only authorized personnel can access critical data and perform certain tasks.

7. Fraud Protection Tools

E-commerce stores are often targets for fraudulent transactions.

BigCommerce provides fraud detection and prevention tools to help you identify and block suspicious activity, protecting your business from chargebacks and losses.

Key Features:

• Integration with fraud detection services like Signifyd and NoFraud
• Customizable fraud filters to flag high-risk orders
• Real-time monitoring and alerts for suspicious transactions

How It Protects Your Store:
By integrating fraud protection tools into your BigCommerce store, you can automatically screen orders for red flags such as unusual billing addresses, multiple failed payment attempts, or mismatched shipping information.

This proactive approach helps you prevent fraud before it impacts your bottom line.

8. Regular Backups

Data loss can occur for various reasons, from cyberattacks to server failures.

BigCommerce ensures that your store’s data is backed up regularly, so you can recover lost information in the event of an emergency.

Key Features:

• Regular, automatic backups of your store’s data
• Easy data recovery in case of accidental deletion or cyberattacks
• Peace of mind knowing that your data is safe and recoverable

How It Protects Your Store:
Regular backups provide a safety net in case of unexpected data loss.

Whether it’s due to a cyberattack, a server crash, or human error, having access to recent backups ensures that you can quickly restore your store to its previous state without losing critical information.

9. Secure Payment Gateways

BigCommerce integrates with secure and trusted payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net.

These gateways use advanced encryption technologies to protect sensitive payment data during transactions.

Key Features:

• Integration with PCI-compliant payment gateways
• Secure encryption of credit card and transaction data
• Support for multiple payment methods, including credit cards, digital wallets, and buy-now-pay-later options

How It Protects Your Store:
By using secure payment gateways, you ensure that your customers’ payment information is protected throughout the transaction process.

This helps prevent fraud and data theft, providing your customers with a safe and reliable shopping experience.

Final Thoughts

BigCommerce’s robust security features ensure that your online store is well-protected from cyber threats, data breaches, and fraud.

From PCI compliance and SSL encryption to fraud prevention and automatic updates, BigCommerce takes a proactive approach to e-commerce security.

By leveraging these built-in tools, you can safeguard your business, protect customer data, and build trust with your audience.

For any e-commerce store, security should always be a top priority.

With BigCommerce, you can rest easy knowing that your store is equipped with the latest security measures to defend against potential threats, allowing you to focus on growing your business with confidence.