Data Security

In an interview with Retail Online Integration in advance of next week's webinar, How to Prevent a Massive Data Breach Disaster, Chris Strand, PCIP, security compliance practice director for Bit9, a provider of software and network security services, offered his thoughts on the value of data protection in the wake of recent breaches that have left many consumers on edge.

Losing the cat-and-mouse game with hackers, retailers are facing increased regulations and potentially significant costs in the name of protecting customers’ personal data. In a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Target and Neiman Marcus executives said even their strongest measures weren't enough to prevent the data breaches that took place during the holiday season. Target CFO Jon Mulligan told the committee that the breach at his company continued for three days after the retailer thought the malware had been handled, The Wall Street Journal reported. It seems this is a watershed moment for security in the retail industry.

Four senior senators today introduced legislation that would, for the first time, provide a federal standard for companies to safeguard consumers' personal information throughout their systems and to quickly notify consumers if those systems are breached. The Data Security and Breach Notification Act was introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein, chairman of the Intelligence Committee; John Rockefeller, chairman of the

A group known as the Syrian Electronic Army claimed over the weekend it hacked eBay and PayPal websites. Mashable broke the story on Saturday, and now Ars Technica is reporting on claims that the group intercepted sensitive email from eBay employees while they were investigating the incident. The EcommerceBytes Blog noted on Saturday that eBay users in the U.K. saw the group's logo on what appeared to be the eBay U.K. homepage on the day of the breach.

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) yesterday sent a letter to Congress restating its long-standing commitment to ensuring the security of consumer data across the entire data-driven marketing economy. The letter states, in part:

Target, which suffered a massive data breach during the holiday shopping season, is speeding up a $100 million program to implement the use of chip-enabled smartcards to protect against cyber theft, a senior company executive said. In an opinion piece on Monday in The Hill newspaper on the eve of his much-awaited appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Target Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan said the retailer's goal was to have the technology in place by early 2015, more than six months ahead of schedule.

This past January, as I've done for the past five years or so, I trekked into New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center for the National Retail Federation's (NRF) Big Show. I was met, as I was in past years as well, by retailers from around the world. I spent time at this year's conference attending presentations and press conferences; meeting and interviewing retail industry execs in the press room; and walking the vast exhibit hall floors trying to find the "next big things" in retail technology. Here are a few of my takeaways

Q: "I sell merchandise on eBay and via my own site, and have much better sales on eBay. How can I convert those eBay buyers to purchase on my website?"

Target said cyberthieves stole credentials from one of the retailer's vendors in order to access its system, according to an ongoing forensic investigation into a data breach that may have exposed information from as many as 110 million customers. The company said that since disclosing the hack Dec. 15, it cleared its system of the malware that had been planted. "In addition, since that time we have taken extra precautions such as limiting or updating access to some of our platforms while the investigation continues," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement Wednesday.

U.S. banks have spent more than $153 million so far replacing 15.3 million debit and credit cards after the huge data heist from Target Corp., and the numbers are only growing. The Consumer Bankers Association announced the numbers Tuesday, saying that as more retailers announce breaches, the price tag for banks could grow to “hundreds of millions of dollars, and possibly billions.” It’s time for Target to step up to the plate and pay some of the costs for one of the largest data thefts recorded in the United States, the industry group said.