Leeds tech firm boosts security in ecommerce sector

Leeds-headquartered website monitoring specialist RapidSpike has launched the first of six new features designed to further boost the security of ecommerce websites, in readiness for PCI DSS 4.0.

In response to rising ecommerce threats, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards will impose 63 new requirements on brands processing, storing or transmitting credit card information, with version 4.0 coming into effect on 31 March 2024. And while industry think tanks are warning that some businesses are leaving it too late to prepare, RapidSpike has bolstered the functionality of its award-winning website monitoring platform with thousands of new data points to support retailers with the transition.

Among the new releases, is a PCI compliance dashboard with the ability to track all script files found on an ecommerce site, with an inventory displaying where they were detected and the last time they were seen, so they can be effectively managed. A content security policies dashboard will also safeguard the authorisation of each script, with advice given to remedy errors in-line with the threat level.

Wider innovations from RapidSpike’s Leeds technology hub include new functionality to manage website third parties including live chats, support plugins, analytics, payment gateways, and postcode lookups. While such third parties are often deemed essential for running successful ecommerce sites, they can create costly security, speed, usability and reliability issues. RapidSpike’s new diagnosis panel provides greater insight into the third party data uncovered throughout the app, to supercharge customers’ ability to make adjustments — whether reducing load times or removing third parties entirely if the integrity of a site is compromised.

“From automotive retailers to travel operators, and fashion stores to FMCG sites, all of these brands are facing tougher times when it comes to transacting online,” explained RapidSpike’s CEO Gav Winter. “We only have to monitor mainstream headlines to see how prevalent Magecart-style ‘form-jacking’ attacks are becoming, and the cost and reputational damage of these payment theft breaches, is astronomical. Margins are also being increasingly squeezed, and competitive pressures are rising.

“We are here to continually empower our ecommerce customers with greater insight into their website health — whether that’s to aid compliance, safeguard reputation, or boost revenues. That’s why we’ve released three new features in the last six months alone, with a further three due before the end of 2023.”

A new return on investment calculator has been built, to predict the revenue impact of website tweaks, including page performance, accessibility, and downtime improvements.

“Ecommerce brands spend so much time and money on great designs, marketing campaigns, and third party plugins — all intended to drive sales,” added Gav. “But if there isn’t a robust platform underpinning the website, these brands are slowly dripping revenue off their bottom line. Our ROI calculator evaluates not just the conversion rate improvements that could be achieved through simple website tweaks, but the potential revenue uplift too.”

Wider new releases have also been unveiled to make RapidSpike more intuitive, including a setup wizard to accelerate the monitoring process, website switcher for customers monitoring multiple URLs, and the ability to compare a website’s performance against RapidSpike’s new ‘Baseline’ indicator of all stats across every customer account.