Target

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

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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.

The news headlines of 2013 have perpetuated the idea that the retail industry, just like any other industry, isn't immune to cyber attacks. Just within the past several weeks we've seen the largest retail data breach to date when Target saw 110 million transactions compromised, and the expectation is that this won't be the last time — for Target or any other retailer. As a result, we'll see some significant changes this year with regard to how retailers protect their sensitive data and consumer buying behavior.

What does it take to make retailers and financial firms work together? Apparently, a crime that affected as many as one out of every three Americans. The data breaches that pilfered the personal information of up to 110 million Target customers last year, along with subsequent attacks on retailers including Neiman Marcus and the craft store Michaels, are galvanizing efforts to strengthen the increasingly vulnerable way that Americans pay for food, gas and practically everything else. Groups that

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

The bad news keeps coming for Target. Jefferies analyst Daniel Binder said on Thursday that the retailer could face between $400 million and $1.1 billion in fines from the data breach that impacted up to 110 million shoppers, which "could be significant and higher than we first thought." That estimate doesn't incorporate lost sales or customer goodwill from the breach. It also doesn't account for potential negative side effects from signing up fewer loyalty card members or lower usage from existing cardholders.

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.