Data Security

Q: "When PLAs were free, our company was king. Now that they're paid, we can't figure out how to crack the code and get PLA visibility. Any best practices around getting the most out of PLAs?" — Jackie Eldridge,  director of social media and affiliate 
marketing, DollarDays.com

The time to begin preparing for the 2014 holiday season is upon us. Last Cyber Monday, Akamai's data showed that retailers experienced record-breaking traffic at the rate of 11.2 million views per minute. While most of this traffic represented legitimate requests, malicious requests designed to steal or manipulate data spiked even higher than legitimate requests over the holiday period.

As recent news stories have illustrated, a data breach can not only harm a retailer financially, but also damage their reputation and impact consumers’ trust. With the growth of e-commerce and mobile payment options comes additional security risks and challenges. Retailers need to proactively explore and implement measures to protect against payment security risks and reduce the impact that a data breach can have on their businesses. Here are three reasons retailers need to take a greater stance and protect their business against data breaches:

Goodwill Industries International, a nonprofit agency that operates thrift stores around the country, said on Monday that it was investigating a potential security breach that may have led to the theft of customers’ credit card data. In a statement, Goodwill said it had been contacted Friday afternoon by federal authorities and a fraud investigation unit about a possible data theft at its U.S. store locations. Goodwill said it was working with the authorities. "At this point, no breach has been confirmed, but an investigation is underway," the statement said.

While many Etsy users were celebrating a long holiday weekend, scammers used the opportunity to perpetrate fraud on the marketplace in what one seller termed "invasion of the listing snatchers." Scammers opened hundreds of shops on Etsy containing listings copied from other sellers for apparently nefarious purposes. An Etsy moderator responding to one thread reassured users it was aware of the issue, but the post left sellers with many questions and uncertainty.

The new Sam's Club MasterCard comes with enhanced credit card safety, a top concern for today's shoppers. Sam's Club is the first mass retailer to actively implement chip-enabled technology. Each credit card has an embedded chip that makes the card more difficult to duplicate, which provides enhanced security from fraudulent activity.

In advance of next week's annual shareholders’ meeting, Target defended its management and oversight of customer data despite the extensive hacking it experienced last year. In a letter to shareholders filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Roxanne Austin, the interim chairwoman of Target's board, listed steps the company had taken toward increasing information security since the breach last year, and described the security apparatus in place before the attack. "Breaches are occurring across the economy and are affecting a wide range of victims including the U.S. government, technology and defense industries, and more traditional companies, like retailers." 

We talk a lot about big data in the retail community. There's certainly enough of it being collected to merit a lot of talk: According to research by Wipro, 78 percent of retailers are collecting and storing location-based information on their shoppers, and 64 percent are gathering and studying data generated by social media. That's on top of the already voluminous amount of information that a point-of-sale system generates simply in the course of doing its job. Most of the time, when we talk about big data, we're talking about its potential uses. 

eBay is taking the unprecedented step of allowing sellers to cancel auction transactions for an 11-day period, a move related to the recent hacking of its customer database. However, if buyers didn't use PayPal to pay for the items, sellers are out of luck. Because eBay detected unauthorized access to its user database in February and March, it began requiring all buyers and sellers to reset their passwords as of May 21. But as it explained in an announcement on Monday afternoon, "the password reset may temporarily interrupt the normal bidding process for buyers." 

Michaels Stores introduced its new website this past week, enabling consumers to experience a seamless approach to inspiration, convenience and promotions through the company's omnichannel network. The new site consists of fun, creative projects for special celebrations, upcoming holidays, projects with Mason jars, along with providing visitors with a list of all project materials needed. The site design allows for simplified searching for products under categories such as baking, sewing, art supplies, home décor, wedding and much more. It features encouraging videos with how-to guides, displays trending ideas for visitors to browse through on the company's Pinterest page.