Security breaches in the retail industry are on the rise, and it is no surprise to find that as the number of information security incidents continues to mount, so do financial losses.
A global PricewaterhouseCoopers Information Security Breaches Survey shows that the number of detected incidents soared to a total of 42.8 million, a 48 per cent leap over 2013.
Cyber risks will never be completely eliminated. It is extremely difficult in a hyper connected age for companies to completely safeguard against security breaches; determined hackers will ultimately find a way around security protocols and the most common breaches are often the simplest, such as phishing emails.
Because of the huge damage to reputation a breach can cause, it is vital for the retail industry to do everything it can to protect the security of its systems and data; however, having the tools and technology isn’t enough in this day and age as these attackers are very sophisticated.
Retail companies can allocate an adequate percentage of their IT budget to security and carefully manage and stress test their systems on a regular basis to ensure the best levels of security. In addition, they can share intelligence about cyber security with each other and with security analysts and encourage speedier adoption of more secure technologies for payment cards and systems such as magnetic strips and signature verification in multi-factor authentication processes.
The survey indicates that on average, UK retailers only spent six per cent of their IT budget on security in 2014, and various studies suggest that the percentage for US retailers was even smaller.
In March, MasterCard and Visa announced a cross industry group to tackle payment systems security, with Visa’s president Ryan McInerney referring to “recent high profile breaches serving as a catalyst for much needed collaboration between the retail and financial services industry on the issue of payment security”.
One of the tasks for the group will be the advancement of Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) chip technology. A unique code is generated for every transaction and this potentially reduces financial loss from lost or stolen cards.
New Zealand retailers are advised to update their systems and hardware to read chipped payment cards.
