Retailers have spent decades strengthening their digital posture to meet consumer demand for elevated experiences.
However, these rapid digital transformation efforts pose significant cybersecurity risks for retailers and their customers. In fact, the retail industry has come under increasing threat from cybersecurity in recent years.
Some experts suggest that 84% of retail organizations are at risk of cyber-attacks, making retail organizations the third most targeted industry after the financial services and healthcare sectors. Masu. Additionally, each incident costs retailers valuable time and money.Companies he spends $ 2.5 million per incident On average, it takes approximately 197 days to detect a breach.
Despite these shocking statistics, many retail companies are struggling to modernize their cyber strategies. Some organizations don't know where to start. Some may think that there is no need to increase investment given the business risks. However, with increased regulatory oversight from agencies like the Federal Trade Commission, and concerns from the public as well, retailers need to step up their cybersecurity efforts.
Security gaps and threat vectors
The majority of retail breaches occur due to poor cybersecurity hygiene. According to Microsoft, it is estimated that basic security hygiene can prevent 99% of attacks. This includes enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA), implementing Zero Trust principles, leveraging detection and response (XDR) and anti-malware technologies, and patching and securing data.
Retailers have inadvertently created gaps across value chains and channels due to a lack of critical controls. And cybercriminals are no stranger to the cracks in a retailer's armor. More than 10% of all attacks in 2023 targeted retailers and wholesalers.
These attacks occur on multiple digital planes. E-commerce and social commerce platforms are targeted because of known vulnerabilities in their application programming interfaces (APIs) and web applications. When attacking online shoppers, attackers typically use fake girlfriend websites as well as man-in-the-middle account takeover and phishing techniques to obtain personal information such as credit card information.
Cyberattacks can also occur in physical stores, especially kiosks without cashiers.hacker attaches skimmer Send to payment device to access transaction data. Although many attacks target consumers for access to personal data, a retailer's own employees, his supply chain, his vendors, IT providers, and partners can also be victimized.
Weak passwords and credentials, single-factor authentication, remote access or support solutions, outdated software, open or misconfigured ports and cloud services, lack of endpoint detection and response, and unsecured networks are the key to threat actors. These are just a few examples of how people can access your network. And in an interconnected, digitally-driven business world, once one company is compromised, all the other companies in its partner ecosystem can also be at risk.
After violation
Regardless of how the attack occurs, retailers need to act quickly when consumer data is compromised. The first step and main priority is to stop attacks, and the best way to stop a breach is to partner with a professional cybersecurity vendor to assess and secure your network.
Beyond digitally driven tactics managed by technology teams, retailers need to limit their impact in other ways. Communications teams must provide regular, transparent updates to necessary stakeholders, namely customers, to restore trust. Legal and compliance teams must report attack details to authorities according to regulatory guidelines.
Depending on the type and scope of the breach, retailers should establish open lines of communication with vendors and partners. This is especially important if consumer financial information is compromised. In these cases, you may also need to work with your payment processor to investigate the attack. Financial institutions often distribute updated information and suggest next steps for victims of such cyberattacks. Going forward, it could be in the interest of retailers to take on this responsibility in order to rebuild consumer trust.
long term strategy
Even if a cyberattack is ultimately thwarted, the work doesn't end there. Unfortunately, retailers and their consumers will continue to be targeted by threat actors. As any leader who has dealt with a cyber-attack knows, just one breach on her part can cost a lot of money and wreak havoc on your reputation. Retail companies must invest time and money to strengthen their cybersecurity posture to ensure a breach like this never happens again.
Organizations that experience a breach should engage their cyber vendor and refer to their incident report. Retailers' in-house cyber teams should perform their own security assessments of the entire corporate environment and build a roadmap accordingly to avoid another breach, as attackers often walk away through backdoors. . This will require establishing new controls and identifying and resolving remaining gaps, such as securing services at the edge.
Another important element of the post-breach roadmap is security technology. All retailers should strive to achieve a zero trust posture. This can only be achieved through a robust roster of well-integrated technologies that enable automated responses and associated threat intelligence.
Retailers must remember to look outside of their own environment and consider not only the risks that external parties pose to the retailer, but also the risks to which they are exposed to others. Enterprises must impose security posture requirements on third-party partnerships, with a primary focus end-to-end.
end service. Similarly, retailers should consider enforcing stricter password requirements for their customers, or better yet, his MFA.
These tactics are more than just suggestions. Retailers should expect to withstand intense scrutiny from cybersecurity regulators and industry governing bodies. The PCI Security Standards Council has already established the latest data security standards for the payment card industry. PCI DSS 4.0.
of SEC, FTC, and many states We are also increasing requirements to protect consumers as cybercrime rates continue to increase. In today's market, retailers are already exposed to a variety of business risks, and retail organizations can do more to reduce cyber risk and protect their customers.
