Helping Retailers to Minimize Cyber Risks

Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a global collaborative initiative that aims to raise awareness and help organizations to protect their sensitive data from increasing cyberattacks. With retailers beginning to harness a data-driven approach to provide personalized experiences and omnichannel strategies to boost sales, the retail sector has become one of the tempting targets for hackers.

Ahead of the upcoming holiday season where retailers tend to make the most of their sales targets, Total Retail spoke to a range of industry experts to gain insights about how retailers can ensure topmost cybersecurity while also providing a seamless customer experience.

Cybersecurity: A Rescuer Amidst Increased Threat

Acknowledging the increased cyber threat during the shopping peak season, Jonathan Mauerer, vice president, operations at Teamwork Commerce, comments: “The festive peak is often exciting for retailers looking to make the most of increased demand for their products. However, hackers often look out for ways to penetrate in these busy periods.” It's vital to note that the importance of cybersecurity must be recognized and acted upon by retailers.

Speaking about the importance of cybersecurity, Eric Mink, chief technology officer of Pax8 EMEA, says: “Cybersecurity can be a very overwhelming topic, but in a digital-first environment, where every device and application we use is potentially at risk at any moment in time, it's one of the most important.”

Moreover, the importance of cybersecurity should be understood as an ongoing practice to protect sensitive information in the long term. Teamwork’s Mauerer suggests that a secure CRM is one of the best ways to secure consumer data. He adds: “To better protect their customers’ information, retailers can lean on secure CRM software that's GDPR compliant and deployed with top-level security.” 

Identifying Vulnerabilities

While retailers lean on technology to bolster their cybersecurity, it must be recognized that humans are most often the weakest link in many cyberattacks. Therefore, retailers must not skimp on training basic cybersecurity measures in their staff.

Dominik Samociuk, PhD, head of security at Future Processing, believes that retailers must ensure that “employees have access to relevant training and development resources.” Similarly, Mauerer asserts that “every single employee in the company should be trained and taught the basics of cybersecurity.”

Samociuk adds: “For many businesses, the IT skills gap has meant they've chosen the path of outsourcing their cybersecurity measures. While training or reskilling their team is vital, working with a specialist partner gives IT leaders peace of mind when looking to enhance their cybersecurity.”

Anticipating the Future

Retailers must understand that there's no single way or solution to provide 100 percent security. However, a combination of technologies can help them minimize the threat surface. According to Dominik Birgelen, CEO of oneclick, cloud-based technologies can help retailers enhance their cybersecurity. He opines: “With rising threats and vulnerabilities such as increased third-party vendor involvement, employee error, negligence and phishing attacks, cloud-based solutions can help businesses to stay secure and remain protected from these types of breaches.”

“Looking ahead, companies need to be prepared for cybersecurity threats, and if they're only considering the potential implications now, it's too late,” adds Samociuk.

From training employees on the basics of cybersecurity to deploying appropriate technologies, retailers can stay prepared to prevent and deal with a cyberattack. The future is uncertain and rapidly evolving. Retailers that meet changing consumer demand while providing ultimate security will be able to prosper during the festive peak season as well as boost customer loyalty in the long term.

Dominik Samociuk, PhD, is the head of security at Future Processing, a technology consultancy and software delivery partner.

Dominik Birgelen is the CEO of oneclick, a company that specializes in the development and operation of a workspace provisioning and streaming platform.

Jonathan Mauerer is vice president, operations at Teamwork Commerce, an omnichannel solution providing retailers with point of sale, order management, inventory control, CRM, and analytics.