No one wants to spend time thinking about what may go wrong, partially because it’s not likely to affect you – except when it does. CNN Money shared a report, Shop for Free!, from a pair of Indiana University researches that got us thinking. It detailed gaping security holes in ecommerce platforms using PayPal, Amazon Payments and Google Checkout, which allow shoppers to purchase items without paying, create their own discount codes, and even buy a website’s most expensive item for the price of its cheapest.

The security flaws that allowed for the new ‘online shoplifters’ likely weren’t entirely the fault of the payment platforms. A representative from PayPal stated that the security flaws found by the researchers were due to “developers not following proper best practices when integrating payments.”

These developer-side security flaws are often a side effect of Google-and-Paste coding, the practice of an inexperienced developer using found code that can introduce logic or security flaws. While Google can be a great learning tool, you don’t want your developer relying on it any more than you would want your surgeon Googling (or Binging) his way through your triple bypass.

Read more for top tips to keep your ecommerce site protected. (more…)