Shopify Security Basics: Steps and Tools to Protect Your Store in 2026

Key Takeaways

• Shopify provides free TLS certificates for domains added to Shopify. 
• Shopify is certified Level 1 PCI DSS compliant, which applies by default to stores powered by Shopify. 
• Merchants should still secure admin access with strong passwords and two-step authentication.
• Staff permissions should be limited based on what each user actually needs.
• Shopify fraud analysis can help merchants review suspicious orders before fulfillment. 
• Apps should be reviewed carefully because third-party apps can access parts of your store.
• Legacy customer accounts are deprecated, and Shopify recommends newer customer accounts for a more secure sign-in experience. 

Shopify handles many important security basics for your store, including hosting, checkout security, TLS certificates, and PCI compliance. But that does not mean store security is fully automatic.

Merchants still need to protect admin access, review staff permissions, use two-step authentication, install apps carefully, watch for fraud, and keep customer data safe.

A secure Shopify store is not only about preventing hacks. It is also about reducing payment risk, avoiding fake orders, protecting customer trust, and making sure only the right people can access sensitive store areas.

In this guide, we will cover simple Shopify security steps every merchant should follow in 2026.

---

What is Shopify Security?

Shopify security refers to the measures taken to protect a Shopify store from cyberattacks, fraud, malware infections, and other hacking attempts. 

These measures can include everything from using strong passwords and two-factor authentication to keeping your Shopify app and plugins up to date.

---

Why is Shopify Security Important?

There are a few reasons why Shopify website security is so important.

First of all, as we mentioned earlier, e-commerce businesses are increasingly being targeted by cybercriminals daily.

Secondly, if your shop is hacked or compromised in any way, it could damage your business reputation and even cost you money to fix your compromised resources.

Finally, if you’re selling products or services online, you need to make sure that your customers’ personal and financial information is safe. After all, if they don’t trust you with their information, they’re not going to purchase from your store.

---

Shopify Security Checklist: How to Protect Your Shop

Now that we’ve discussed the importance of Shopify security, let’s take a look at some of the things you can do to protect your store.

1. Secure form-fieldson your store from malicious bots

Bad bots or malicious bots are one of the biggest threats to Shopify stores. They can drain your resources, slow down your store, and even steal your customer information.

To protect your store from bots, you can use a form-field or bot protection solution such as Google’s reCAPTCHA, etc. These solutions work by adding a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to your forms, which helps to prevent malicious bots from submitting them. Additionally, implementing fake number lookup can help verify the authenticity of phone numbers submitted through your forms, further protecting your store from fraudulent activities.

You can enable reCAPTCHA on your Shopify store by following these steps:

i. Go to Online Store in your Shopify Admin menu.

ii. Then, select Preferences

iii. In the Spam Protection section, make sure both the checkboxes are checked (see image below):

iv. That’s it. Now, hit the Save button.

2. Take periodic backups of your Shopify store (Shopify data security)

Backing up your Shopify store on a regular basis is one of the best ways to protect it from data loss.

In the event that your shop is hacked or compromised, you’ll always have a recent backup that you can restore. This will help minimize any damage and downtime for your business.

You should also make sure to back up any important files stored on your computer, such as product photos, documents, etc. We recommend using a cloud-based storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox, or iCloud.

3. Continuously monitor your store using an automated solution

Store monitoring helps you catch problems before customers report them. For example, you may want to monitor:

• Homepage availability
• Product pages
• Add-to-cart button
• Checkout flow
• Customer login
• Forms
• App-related issues

This is useful after theme changes, app installs, checkout updates, or major campaigns.

You can use a Shopify monitoring app or a general uptime monitoring tool. The goal is simple: know quickly if something important stops working.

4. Use a secure payment gateway

Use trusted payment providers and make sure your checkout is secure. Shopify Payments is Shopify’s built-in payment option, where available. You can also use supported third-party payment providers such as PayPal, Stripe, or other gateways, depending on your country and store setup.

Shopify is PCI compliant by default, which helps protect payment information for stores powered by Shopify. 

Also make sure your store uses HTTPS. Shopify provides free TLS certificates for domains added to Shopify. TLS is often still called SSL, but TLS is the current security standard. 

5. Use a country or IP blocking solution

If you don’t want people from a specific country or IP address to visit your Shopify store, you can always block that country or IP address using a solution/app that offers this feature.

There are many different apps available help you fortify your Shopify setup using IP-based solutions that allow you to not only block access but also identify IP location effectively. Just type “block ip” in the app store, and choose a reputed app.

This is a great way to prevent potential hacking attempts and malicious traffic that can hurt your store’s SEO efforts.

6. Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication

This is one of the most important Shopify account security measures you can take to protect your shop from unauthorized login access.

Make sure to use long and complex passwords and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for all your logins. This way, even if someone manages to guess your password, they won’t be able to log in unless they have access to your phone or another device that can generate the second factor (usually a code).

You can set up 2FA for your Shopify store using an Authenticator app such as Google Authenticator (Android/iPhone), Duo Mobile (Android/iPhone), Amazon AWS MFA, etc.

7. Hide specific pages or discounted prices

If you have pages on your Shopify store that you don’t want to show to all your visitors, you can always hide or lock them.

You can do this using a page hiding app like Wholesale Lock Manager B2B (WLM) or by manually editing your theme’s code. This is a great way to prevent sensitive information like customer lists or discounted prices from being displayed to non-registered users.

8. Use GDPR cookies consent bar

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the EU privacy law for data protection which says that all online websites require to get explicit consent from visitors before they can store or collect any personal data. 

This includes cookies, which are small pieces of data that are stored on your visitors’ devices when they visit your website.

If you’re selling to customers in the EU, you must be compliant with the GDPR. One way to do this is by displaying a GDPR cookies consent bar to accept cookies in your store.’

9. Do regular secure code reviews or audits to find security loopholes

Security code reviews or audits should be done on a regular basis (at least once a year) to check for any potential vulnerabilities in your Shopify store’s code. This is especially important if you’re using a custom-coded theme or have made customizations to your store’s code.

You can either run these critical test cases for your Shopify store periodically and all by yourself using some technical tools or hire a Shopify expert to do it for you.

Either way, make sure that all the sensitive information like API keys, passwords, etc. are removed before you start the review process.

10. Protect yourself from Phishing

Falling a victim to phishing attack may compromise your entire store and you may face a customer data breach. To prevent phishing, you should always keep your Shopify admin panel and other accounts (like your email) up-to-date with the latest security patches.

To prevent fishing, you should also think before clicking any suspicious links or attachments in emails unless you’re absolutely sure they’re safe. If you’re unsure, you can hover over the link to see where it’s really taking you before clicking on it (you can see it on the left bottom side of your browser).

Phishing attacks can be very sophisticated and even fool experienced users, so it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

If you think your store has been a victim of a phishing attack, you should contact Shopify immediately so they can help you secure your account.

---

Top 6 Shopify Security Tools

There are many Shopify security tools available that can help you protect your store. Here are a few of our favorites:

1. Wholesale Lock Manager

Wholesale Lock Manager is a Shopify app that allows you to lock or hide Shopify store content and keep track of who has access to what. It offers features such as hiding/locking prices of specific products, collections, pages, specific URLs, or any other content on your store.

It also generates a secret URL for your store so that you can share that URL with only those who you want to display your store’s content/products.

2. SSL Certificate Checker by DigiCert

SSL Certificate Checker tool lets you check whether your SSL certificate is properly installed and configured.

3. Password checker by Kaspersky

Password checker by Kaspersky helps your check the strength of your passwords and makes sure they’re up to scratch.

4. Dashlane Password Manager

Dashlane password manager is a freemium tool that helps you manage all your passwords and keep them safe.

5. Google Authenticator

Google Authenticator is a TOTP (Time-based One-time Password Algorithm) app that helps you add an extra layer of security to your store by requiring two-factor authentication for login.

---

Final Thoughts

While Shopify is a secure platform, it is important to remember to take additional precautions to keep your business and customer data safe. Implementing the security measures mentioned in this article will help protect your shop from cyberattacks, malware and hacking attempts.

---

Frequently Asked Questions