* X-Cart shopping cart software is based on PHP Smarty templates, this makes it very flexible and easy to modify. The data is stored in MySQL database.
* W3C XHTML 1.0 compliance of X-Cart storefront out of the box.
* You receive a complete source code and SQL tables for MySQL database to make them extended or customized easily.
* X-Cart is a turnkey package. Installation is handled by web-based step-by-step wizard to make the system running immediately after receiving it.
* X-Cart is search engine friendly. It has integrated HTML catalog functionality to gain benefits of dynamic content and static HTML preferred by search engines.
X-Cart makes it easy for nearly anyone with the desire to establish an e-commerce store to do so, however not everyone has the background knowledge to know to address security issues. Many store owners begin designing, adding products, and focusing on sales and SEO without ensuring that their x-cart e-commerce store is developed in a secure environment with a focus on security. Once established often x-cart store owners are not aware of what is required to maintain their x-cart in a manner that keeps it secure over time.
The purpose of this tutorial is to assist you in understanding:
The importance of X-Cart security
Hosting X-Cart in a secure environment
How to secure your X-Cart
Maintenance of x-cart security
The importance of X-Cart security
Website security should always be a priority, but is absolutely crucial when dealing with e-commerce stores that transact and store sensitive customer data such as email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and credit card information. Reading through the x-cart forums you will find many x-cart store owners who have had the misfortune of having their x-cart hacked/exploited. Having worked with x-cart since 2002, I've had many of those store owners come to me asking what can be done to fix their store, and I have repeatedly heard the common response that nobody had ever talked to them about security and they were unaware of anything that needed to be done. Believe me when I say that if you are not aware of what is required to secure and maintain your x-cart, it is by sheer luck that your x-cart has not been hacked or exploited and it is only a matter of time before you become a victim. That said, by reading this tutorial you are well on your way to understanding and performing x-cart security to keep you and your customers safe.
Hosting X-Cart in a secure environment
The environment on which your x-cart is hosted is the base for all security, and if your host and/or server is not secure, all the security settings on your x-cart are not going to keep you from being exploited. There are generally two types of hosting: a shared server where you purchase a plan with a host and they provide you space for your site to reside on a server with many other clients, or a dedicated server, which is a computer where you can host your site(s) exclusively (a VPS is essentially a combination allowing dedicated server privileges in an environment shared with less users than with shared hosting).
Secured Shared Hosting
The main benefits of shared hosting is the reduced cost available by sharing the server with other users, and having the server company manage the server security. These same benefits can also pose a security threat however, as the sites of other clients can jeopardize your security if their sites are breached, and if you rely on a server company to secure a server and they fail to do so correctly, you can find yourself in serious trouble. To combat these potential problems, it is imperative that you host with a trusted hosting provider who makes server security a priority. View our recommended X-Cart Hosting providers.