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Shop Security Checklist: Protecting Your Shopify and Facebook Stores from the Surge in Attacks

ssweatshirt

2026-03-04

12 min read

Practical 2026 shop security checklist: shore up passwords, backups, admin access, and customer comms amid rising Facebook and Shopify attacks.

Hook: Your store is a business — not a target practice

If you run a fashion or jewelry ecommerce shop on Shopify and promote it on Facebook, late 2025 and early 2026 made one thing painfully clear: attackers are no longer probing — they're striking. You don't have to be technically elite to block most of these attacks. What you need is a practical, prioritized shop security checklist that covers passwords, backups, staff access, payment safety, and customer communications.

The bottom line — what to do in the next 24–72 hours

Immediate actions (first 24–72 hours) — do these now to reduce exposure:

Force a password reset for all admin/staff accounts that have weak or reused passwords and require use of a password manager.
Enable phishing-resistant MFA (FIDO2 / hardware keys) for all admins and partners. If hardware keys aren't available, enforce TOTP and disable SMS where possible.
Export and verify a full backup of products, themes, customer lists and orders (use an off-platform backup app or manual exports).
Audit active staff accounts and revoke any unused or suspicious ones.
Publicly post or prepare a customer communication template about how you'll respond if their data may be impacted; ensure SPF/DKIM/DMARC are set on your sending domain.

Why this matters in 2026

Late 2025 and early 2026 saw a surge in credential-based attacks and password-reset exploits across social platforms and retail storefronts. Security outlets warned specifically about Meta platforms — see the January 16, 2026 Forbes coverage highlighting a spike in Facebook password attacks. These trends translate directly to ecommerce: compromised social accounts mean fraudulent ad pushes, takeover of Business Manager, and malicious password reset flows that funnel to store admin access.

“Facebook password attacks have surged” — Forbes, Jan 16, 2026. Treat your social accounts like admin keys.

Section 1 — Password checklist: protect the keys to the kingdom

Passwords remain the most exploited weakness. Put another way: the store is only as secure as the least-protected password that unlocks it. This checklist is actionable and platform-agnostic.

Mandatory password rules (enforce on day one)

Length over complexity: require passphrases of at least 16 characters or 4+ random words. Long beats clever substitutions.
Unique passwords: no reused passwords across personal email, social accounts, admin panels, or developer tools.
Use a password manager: mandate a trusted manager (1Password, Bitwarden, or equivalent) for all staff; store emergency access securely.
Ban personal email for admin: require company email addresses for Shopify staff accounts and Business Manager logins.

Multi-factor done right

Prefer hardware/FIDO2 keys (YubiKey, Titan) for owners and lead admins — these are phishing resistant.
Use TOTP apps (Authy, Google Authenticator) for secondary accounts. Disable SMS-based 2FA where possible; SIM swap attacks are common.
Enroll backup methods (recovery codes stored offline, secondary hardware key held by a trusted emergency custodian).

Rotation, emergency access, and incident drills

Rotate API keys and app-level tokens every 90 days or when staff churn happens.
Keep an encrypted, offline record of recovery codes for critical accounts—store them in a fire-safe or secure company vault.
Schedule a quarterly password and MFA drill: simulate a lost admin key and run the recovery process end-to-end.

Section 2 — Shopify protection: platform-specific hardening

Shopify provides tools and controls — and attackers know them well. Harden your store using native features plus vetted third-party tools.

Shopify admin safety checklist

Staff accounts & permissions: use Shopify Staff Accounts with least privilege. Give “View” instead of “Manage” where appropriate.
Require 2FA for staff accounts: force 2FA for all accounts and enforce security key use for the owner and senior admins.
App vetting: only install apps with high ratings, transparent privacy policies, and known developers. Approve app installations through a manager approval process.
API key control: treat private apps and access tokens like secrets—rotate, log usage, and revoke unused keys.
Theme file monitoring: keep theme code in Git and restrict who can edit theme files to a small set of developers.

Backups and disaster recovery for Shopify

Shopify is a hosted platform, but that does not replace your backups. Platform outages, app mistakes, or malicious deletions still occur.

Use a reputable backup app: pick providers like Rewind or an equivalent that exports products, collections, customers, orders, and metafields automatically. Schedule daily backups.
Manual exports: weekly CSV exports of customers, products, and orders stored in encrypted cloud storage (AWS S3 with object lock, Google Cloud Storage) give you another layer.
Theme and assets: store theme code and assets in a private Git repo; tag releases and keep rollback scripts handy.

Section 3 — Facebook and Meta Business protection

Social platforms are increasingly a pivot point for store compromises — attackers will take over ad accounts, push spam ads, or use password-reset flows to escalate access.

Immediate Facebook hardening

Enable Business Two-Factor Authentication: require any person with admin or advertiser access to enable 2FA in Business Manager.
Lock your verified domain: verify and lock your domain in Business Manager to prevent unauthorized pixel or ad linking.
Limit ad account admins: reduce the list of people who can run or edit ads; use partner access for agencies and set time-limited roles.
Audit pixels & conversions API: ensure only approved owners can change pixels or webhook endpoints; verify endpoint signatures.

Immediately remove ad spend and pause active campaigns.
Run a post-mortem to see if accounts were used to phish customers; prepare communications if customer data was exposed.
Coordinate with Meta support, provide proof of identity, and retain logs/screenshots of malicious ads/posts.

Section 4 — Data backup: what's essential and how to store it

Backups are your insurance policy — but not all backups are equal. You need recoverable, tested backups that include data and storefront code.

What to back up

Products: SKUs, descriptions, images, variants, prices, and metafields.
Customers: email, phone (if applicable), tags, notes, and address history. Respect PII and encrypt at rest.
Orders & financials: full order export including payment and fulfillment metadata.
Themes & apps: theme code, liquid templates, app configurations, and custom scripts.
Marketing assets: creative assets used in ads and social channels, and ad account history for audits.

How to store backups safely

Use automated backups with versioning and 30–90 day retention.
Store a copy off-platform in an encrypted cloud bucket; use server-side encryption and IAM controls.
Test restores quarterly — a backup that can't be restored is worthless.
Consider “air-gapped” backups for critical secrets and recovery data (offline storage or isolated cloud accounts).

Section 5 — Admin access & staff security

Human access is the usual culprit: ex-employees, over-permissioned contractors, or a single compromised laptop can lead to disaster.

Practical staff access checklist

Least privilege: give staff only what they need—no generic admin logins.
Periodic audits: quarterly review of staff accounts, roles, app access, and collaborator keys.
On/offboarding playbooks: immediately revoke access on termination, change shared secrets, and rotate keys.
Developer gates: require code reviews for theme changes and sign-off for production deploys.
Device hygiene: require disk encryption and strong passcodes on staff devices that access admin controls.

Section 6 — Payment safety & fraud controls

Payment fraud damages revenue and reputation. Lock down payment paths and put checks in place to reduce chargebacks and friendly fraud.

Payment protection checklist

Use PCI-compliant gateways: prefer hosted, tokenized solutions that reduce your PCI scope.
Enable 3D Secure: reduce card fraud and shift liability where possible.
Apply AVS/CVV checks: require basic verification and flag high-risk combinations for manual review.
Velocity controls: block multiple high-value orders from the same IP or payment method in a short window.
Fraud detection tools: integrate Shopify's fraud analysis or third-party solutions (Signifyd, Riskified) for high-risk flows.

Section 7 — Monitoring, logging & detection

Prevention is critical, but you also need to detect anomalies quickly.

Monitoring checklist

Admin activity logs: review Shopify admin activity regularly for unusual logins or edits.
Alerting: set alerts for new staff accounts, app installs, abrupt price changes, and bulk product exports.
Security information & event management (SIEM): forward logs (webhooks, server logs, app logs) to a consolidated SIEM for analysis if you have scale.
External monitoring: watch your brand on social and ad networks for fake pages or unauthorized ad activity.

Section 8 — Customer communication & phishing hygiene

A takeover can quickly morph into a customer-facing scam. Make customer trust a priority before an incident happens.

Customer safety checklist

Verified sender domain: set SPF, DKIM and DMARC for transactional and marketing domains so customers can trust your emails.
Phishing guidance: publish a short “How we will contact you” page that explains you will never ask for passwords or full card numbers.
Incident templates: pre-write email and social templates to notify customers quickly and consistently if a breach affects them.
Two-way verification: for high-value orders, use an SMS or email confirmation with a masked order reference instead of asking for full PII over chat.

Section 9 — Incident response: the playbook

A written incident response plan saves time and limits damage. Keep it short, role-driven, and rehearsed.

Incident response checklist

Detect & Triage — identify scope: which accounts, apps, or data objects are impacted?
Contain — revoke compromised tokens, disable accounts, pause ad spend and payment flows if necessary.
Eradicate — remove malicious code or backdoors, rotate secrets and keys, and reinstall clean themes or code from known-good backups.
Recover — restore data from verified backups, re-enable services in a controlled manner, and monitor for re-infection.
Report & Learn — notify customers if required, file reports to platforms (Shopify support, Meta Business support), and run a post-incident review to update processes.

Section 10 — Training, culture & future predictions for 2026

Security is a team sport. Training and a culture of cautious curiosity will deliver sustained protection.

Training & culture checklist

Quarterly phishing simulations with short, measurable lessons.
Role-specific security checklists for customer service, marketing, and developers.
Security champion in each function to be the go-to for suspicious activity and process updates.

2026 trends to watch (and how to prepare)

Rise of credential stuffing and token theft: expect more automated attacks; defend with MFA, rate limiting and bot detection.
Phishing via social ads: attackers will increasingly hijack ad channels; lock down ad accounts and verify domains.
Supply-chain and app risk: malicious third-party apps will remain a key vector—treat app installs like code changes.
AI-assisted social engineering: deepfakes and hyper-personalized phishing will rise; verify requests for funds or account changes with callbacks and out-of-band checks.

Checklist summary — a printable quick-reference

Here's the one-page checklist you can act on now:

Passwords: enforce 16+ char passphrases, password manager, unique passwords.
MFA: hardware keys for owners, TOTP for staff, disable SMS where possible.
Backups: automated daily backups + off-platform encrypted storage + quarterly restore tests.
Admin access: least privilege, quarterly audits, immediate revocation on exit.
Payments: PCI gateway, 3D Secure, AVS/CVV, fraud scoring.
Social: Business Manager 2FA, domain verification, limited ad admins.
Monitoring: admin logs, alerting for new apps/accounts, SIEM for scale.
Customer comms: set SPF/DKIM/DMARC, phishing guidance, incident templates.
Incident plan: detect, contain, eradicate, recover, report.

Real-world example — quick case study

In late 2025, a small apparel brand experienced an Instagram-to-Shopify takeover. Attackers reset the social account password via a reused email credential, posted a malicious checkout link that directed customers to a credential harvest page, and attempted to change the Shopify payout bank details. The brand's swift response—locking ad accounts, rotating API keys, pausing payouts, and restoring the theme from the last clean backup—prevented financial loss and minimized customer exposure. They then enforced hardware keys for owners and rolled out password managers for staff.

Actionable takeaways — what to implement this week

Force a password/MFA audit and reset for all admin and social accounts.
Schedule a full backup and test a restore this week.
Cut admin access to a minimum and require hardware keys for owners.
Draft and publish a short customer page on how you handle security and phishing.
Prepare incident templates and contact lists for Shopify, Meta, and payment providers.

Where to get help — tools & partners

If you're small and resource-limited, focus on the high-impact controls: strong passwords, password manager, MFA (hardware where possible), daily backups, and app vetting. For larger stores, consider hiring a security consultant or managed SOC to implement SIEM, continuous monitoring, and incident response services.

Final thoughts — security as part of customer experience

Security is not a cost center: it's a trust builder. Shoppers expect their orders and data to be safe. A visible commitment to security—verified domains, secure payment badges, clear phishing guidance—boosts conversion and reduces support load. In 2026, with attacks surging on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, the difference between a resilient brand and one that loses customers is often a checklist and a short rehearsal.

Call to action

Don't wait for the alert to go off. Run this checklist now, schedule a restore test, and lock down your admin and social accounts. Need a printable checklist or a step-by-step walkthrough tailored to your store? Visit sweatshirt.top/security or contact your platform support and request an immediate security audit.

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Senior editor and content strategist. Writing about technology, design, and the future of digital media. Follow along for deep dives into the industry's moving parts.