A new survey revealed that retailers are responding to cyber attacks on average twice a week. 16% of retailers said they experienced an attack or attempted attack every day, 11% said they responded 2-3 times per week, and 64% said once a month. The incidence of cyber attacks was found to be especially high in the grocery industry, with 29% of respondents dealing with attempted security breaches every day, and 55% every week. In other retail verticals, 65% of respondents in the sports and outdoor sector said they responded once a week, as did 49% of fashion retailers and 40% of department stores.
Lisa Baergen, Director at NuData Security:
“In today’s online, big-data driven economy, retailers have never been privy to so much sensitive customer information. Even things that might seem relatively benign on the surface can be used for malicious purposes or can be used in social engineering or phishing tactics to gain more dangerous information. For this reason, all organisations need to make the protection of customer data a propriety, and need to move past the username/authentication model and embrace a model that engages multiple layers – so when one can’t return a high trust confidence, there is another layer to rely upon. The largest merchants and banks are adopting passive behavioural biometric solutions to provide customers data with extra layers of protection, to ensure a strong balance between security from cyberattacks without adding excess customer friction.”
