Case Study: Preventing a Data Breach at a Growing E-Commerce Retailer
Client: Styleora Fashion Pvt. Ltd.
Industry: Retail & E-Commerce
Location: Delhi NCR, India
Engagement Duration: 1.5 Months
Services Provided: eCommerce Security Audit, Payment Gateway Hardening, Server-side Penetration Testing, Bot Protection, GDPR Advisory
Background
Styleora, a fashion-forward e-commerce startup, had been experiencing month-over-month growth thanks to its aggressive social media campaigns and influencer collaborations. With over 50,000 transactions processed monthly and growing, the brand was becoming a recognizable name among young consumers in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.
However, behind the scenes, the company’s technical team was struggling to keep up with evolving threats. Their Magento-based platform, hosted on a VPS with limited DDoS protection and no formal security strategy, had already experienced three brief outages caused by credential stuffing attacks. Worse, during a mid-season sale, they saw repeated unauthorized login attempts and reports of fraudulent checkout activity.
Recognizing the potential financial and reputational damage of a breach, the COO reached out to us for immediate support.
Our Security Intervention
Our first step was to conduct a complete e-commerce cybersecurity audit, covering the application stack, payment gateway configurations, third-party plugins, admin portals, and customer login workflows. The audit revealed multiple severe gaps: exposed admin panels indexed by Google, outdated payment plugin versions, and a lack of input validation in custom coupon logic.
To secure the backend, we hardened the platform using a layered defense approach:
Implemented rate limiting and CAPTCHA-based controls on login and checkout pages
Reconfigured the payment API with stricter headers and tokenized transactions
Applied server-side firewall rules to filter botnet traffic targeting login endpoints
In parallel, we launched a server penetration test that exposed SQL injection points in their discount module and vulnerabilities in an outdated CMS extension. These were patched with immediate effect.
To protect customer data and meet GDPR-aligned best practices, we introduced data masking and session expiration rules, and restructured the cookie consent framework in line with European guidelines—important for their newly launched international storefront.
The Results
Within six weeks, Styleora’s digital storefront was transformed into a resilient and secure e-commerce platform. Their bot traffic dropped by over 85% following the introduction of behavioral analytics-based detection. Checkout fraud attempts were reduced to near zero.
Perhaps the biggest success was during their following sales campaign—where the platform handled 40% more concurrent users without any security alerts, payment disruptions, or downtime.
Additionally, their upgraded GDPR posture helped them finalize a B2B retail distribution partnership in Germany, unlocking a new revenue stream.
Client Feedback
“We thought security would slow us down, but your team proved it can actually make us faster, smarter, and more professional. Our investors and enterprise clients are now more confident than ever.”
– Natasha Jain, COO, Styleora Fashion
Key Insight
In e-commerce, the margin for error is razor-thin. One breach can erase years of brand building. By acting early and investing in comprehensive protection, Styleora secured not just their website—but their future growth.