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What should you secure first?
Start with an inventory of the systems and people that can affect your store or its payments. For each item, record an owner and how to contact the relevant provider if something goes wrong. CISA’s guidance on reducing internet exposure and business logging supports identifying exposed assets and keeping useful records; the inventory below is a practical way to apply those principles.
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- Storefront platform, version, hosting environment, domain registrar, and administrator accounts.
- Payment flow, payment provider, and every theme, plugin, extension, script, and tag that can run on checkout pages.
- Backups, deployment access, and the people or suppliers authorized to make changes.
- Provider support contacts and the person responsible for contacting each one during an incident.
Review the inventory when you add a service, change checkout, or give a person or supplier new access.
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How do you protect accounts that can change the store?
Require a unique password and multifactor authentication (MFA) on accounts with access to the storefront, customer information, or payments. Prioritize store administrators, business email, hosting, the domain registrar, and payment-provider accounts: control of any of these can help an attacker reset credentials or change where customers are sent.
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Where supported, choose phishing-resistant MFA. CISA lists physical security keys first in its options, followed by authenticator apps with number matching, authenticator codes, biometrics, and text or email codes; it identifies text and email codes as the weakest of those options. The available methods depend on the service. A security key protects sign-in to compatible accounts, not the checkout page or the rest of the site. CISA’s MFA guidance for businesses explains its recommendations.
Give each worker an individual account rather than sharing administrator credentials. Remove access when someone no longer needs it, and document how an authorized person can recover an account if a key or device is lost. Check that recovery options do not undermine the MFA protection you put in place.
How can you reduce the storefront’s attack surface?
Keep the platform, server, plugins, themes, and other software that remains in use supported and updated. Remove unused extensions and accounts; they add maintenance and access paths without serving a business need. CISA advises organizations to assess internet-facing assets, decide which need to be reachable, and reduce exposure where possible. Its Internet Exposure Reduction Guidance was published June 4, 2025.
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- For each one, identify its business purpose and who needs access. Restrict or remove exposure that is not needed.
- Apply security updates to the software and services that remain exposed, using the vendor’s supported update process.
- Recheck access after changes to hosting, integrations, staff responsibilities, or the storefront.
Do not treat a website as secure simply because its storefront is current: hosting, extensions, administrative accounts, and integrations are part of the same operational picture.
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How do you protect checkout from e-skimming?
Online skimming happens when malicious code in a customer’s browser captures payment information as the customer enters it. Because scripts and tags can change what a payment page does, keep a current list of what runs there, why it is needed, and who is authorized to change it. Remove scripts that are no longer needed and investigate unexpected changes.
PCI SSC’s March 10, 2025 Payment Page Security and Preventing E-Skimming supplement addresses authorization and integrity checks for payment-page scripts, plus monitoring for tampering with scripts and security-impacting HTTP headers, in connection with PCI DSS Requirements 6.4.3 and 11.6.1. Apply the requirements that fit your payment setup and confirm implementation details with your provider or a qualified payment-security professional.
Map the payment flow before deciding what to check
Follow the customer journey from your product or cart page through payment and back to order confirmation. Identify which page serves the form and which parts of the experience your store controls.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems| Payment flow | Where the form is served and what the merchant controls | What PCI SSC FAQ 1588 says about the SAQ A script criterion |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant-hosted card form | The card form is on a merchant page; the merchant controls that page and its browser-side code. | FAQ 1588’s clarification is specifically about an embedded third-party form, not a general determination for every merchant-hosted form. Confirm applicable requirements and validation with your acquirer or payment brand. |
| Embedded third-party form, such as an iframe | The merchant page embeds a provider’s payment form. The merchant still controls the surrounding page and its scripts. | For this flow, FAQ 1588 says the merchant must meet the SAQ A script-attack eligibility criterion by confirming the site is not susceptible to relevant script attacks. Suitable techniques may be used, or the merchant may obtain confirmation from the compliant provider when the payment solution is implemented according to the provider’s instructions. |
| Redirect to a provider | The customer leaves the merchant page for the provider’s payment page. The merchant controls the page that sends the customer there, not the provider-hosted form. | FAQ 1588 says its specific SAQ A script-attack criterion does not apply to a page that redirects to the processor. This does not establish exemption from all PCI DSS requirements or validation. |
| Fully provider-hosted payment page | The provider serves the payment page. The merchant’s own payment-page code is reduced, though the store still controls the customer’s route to payment and related site components. | FAQ 1588 says its specific criterion does not apply when payment is fully outsourced through a provider-hosted page. It does not establish exemption from all PCI DSS requirements or validation. |
Embedded forms can preserve more of a seamless on-site checkout experience, but the merchant’s page still matters because its scripts can affect what customers see or enter. Redirects and provider-hosted pages reduce the amount of payment-form code served by the merchant, but do not guarantee security or decide the merchant’s full compliance obligations. PCI SSC’s FAQ 1588 makes this specific distinction; its PCI DSS overview says compliance-program organizations, such as payment brands or acquirers, determine whether an entity must comply with or validate against a PCI SSC standard.
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Check your current payment flow, applicable SAQ, and validation requirements with your acquirer or payment brand. Do not assume that outsourcing card entry removes every merchant responsibility.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should you monitor and prepare to recover?
Keep logs that can help you spot and investigate unusual activity, such as unexpected account or site changes. Protect log data from unauthorized alteration and make sure someone is responsible for reviewing relevant alerts and changes. CISA’s logging guidance covers using and protecting business-system logs.
Keep backups that you can recover from, and include the information and systems needed to restore normal trading. Assign response responsibilities in advance across technology, communications, legal, and business continuity. Write down who will contact your hosting provider, payment provider, acquirer, legal counsel, customers, and relevant authorities if an incident requires it. CISA’s small and medium business resources provide a starting point for baseline security practices.
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Hosting companies, payment providers, plugins, analytics, and other ICT suppliers may have access to your store or its data. Keep them in your inventory, note what access they have, and review whether that access is still necessary. CISA’s ICT supply-chain risk fact sheet recommends visibility into suppliers and managing risks related to their security posture.
For each provider, tailor questions to the service and your agreement. Ask how it handles account security and updates, what access it needs, how it protects backups, how it will notify you of an incident, and who is responsible for payment-page scripts or other security-impacting changes.
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