Is it ok for the Support team to have access to my Admin Panel?

General General Questions
1

As you all know I have exhausted my efforts and some of this forums help to solve some problems with CS-Cart etc…Is it ok for the Support team to have access to my Admin Panel?? I have all my orders completed with no CC info etc… just their e-mails etc…what do you think??



thnx Chris

2

Chris,



This is a situation of which CS-Cart support needs direct access to your files in order to find & correct the problem, most likely there is no other way to find the problem.



Unless you are able to correct the problem yourself, or by someone employed by your organization, then sometimes you have no other choice than to allow access to someone you have gained trust in. I view this as the CS-Cart staff accesses & repairs many CS-Cart user sites on a daily basis without any known negative situations, so I believe you should not have much to be concerned of. Besides they do know their product better than any outside party you may find. Thirdly, they are a reputable, well managed organization.



Hint = It is always a very smart idea to change your admin login credentials regularly & immediately after allowing any outside party access to your site! Not a bad idea to regularly change your database credentials as well. You see, I like to solve problems before they have a chance to occur… :)

3

[quote name=‘Struck’ timestamp=‘1323378476’ post=‘127536’]

Chris,



This is a situation of which CS-Cart support needs direct access to your files in order to find & correct the problem, most likely there is no other way to find the problem.



Unless you are able to correct the problem yourself, or by someone employed by your organization, then sometimes you have no other choice than to allow access to someone you have gained trust in. I view this as the CS-Cart staff accesses & repairs many CS-Cart user sites on a daily basis without any known negative situations, so I believe you should not have much to be concerned of. Besides they do know their product better than any outside party you may find. Thirdly, they are a reputable, well managed organization.



Hint = It is always a very smart idea to change your admin login credentials regularly & immediately after allowing any outside party access to your site! Not a bad idea to regularly change your database credentials as well. You see, I like to solve problems before they have a chance to occur… :)

[/quote]



Will do… Thanks for the input …cb

4

Always suggested to have a closed development store to copy everything to.



Not faulting CS-Cart directly but for the purpose of testing applications before they are installed on livesites, it's best to keep it isolated.



J.

5

If you provide access, do so under a separate login and then simply disable that login when they are done helping you.

I don't think the issue would be with current cs-cart employees. However, no one knows what happens with dissatisfied ex-employees who might have previously had access to your admin and/or FTP info (or where cs-cart stores this at the place of business).



So as noted above the “best” is:

  1. Create a copy of your store (files and database) for someone who is debugging to help you on. Always good to have a test environment anyway.
  2. Use a separate login id for their admin access.
  3. Change your cPanel and/or FTP passwords regularly regardless of whether you've given the jewels away or not.