How Retailers Can Protect Themselves From Cyber Attacks

DDoS attacks target an organization's network, infrastructure and applications by using multiple sources to generate traffic toward a target at the same time. These sources can be a part of a botnet or they can be valid servers out on the internet being used to reflect and/or magnify attack traffic. The traffic arriving at the target can saturate connectivity, impact network infrastructure (e.g., firewalls and load-balancers) and target applications directly — all dependent on the nature of the attack. Unfortunately, attackers have access to both tools and commercial services to make launching attacks easy, whatever their motivation may be. For retailers, the result is the same regardless of the attack type. If not protected, this could translate to lost revenue, increased operational cost and a damaged brand.