With the continuing strides into data-centric operations, retailers are today staring at an unprecedented risk from data breach. Millions of customers’ financial information as well as billions worth transactions are at stake, thanks to the rapid proliferation and advancement of cyber criminals. Companies must therefore take strong and effective measures to secure their enterprise data…
eBay, the world’s biggest online retailer holds the dubious record for the biggest data breach in recent times. Cyber thieves in 2014 hacked 145 million customer accounts! The hackers could gain access to sensitive information including customers’ names, encrypted passwords, emails, registered addresses, phone numbers and date of birth.
In 2013, leading global retailer Target was victim of a data breach when it reported the theft of 40 million credit card accounts. In all, 70 million customers’ data was compromised. On top of that, the company spent $240 million to replace customers’ cards and cover other damages.
In 2014, Home Depot, the largest home decor retailer across United States was the target of a cyber attack on its payment system, when it reported that 56 million credit card accounts were breached! The store had to book losses in excess of $60 million and had to roll out a new encryption technology for their cash registers and self-checkout systems.
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Such and many more incidents have highlighted that online as well as offline retailers must pay attention to data encryption and secure the information of their customers, including payment credentials.
Here are a few tips to create a robust security network:
- Staff Awareness: This is the first and the most important step towards data security. Staff must be made aware through regular training and awareness workshops to make them responsible and alert towards any suspicious data activities.
- Updating Security Policies: The organization’s security policies must be updated all times to keep them in sync with IT environment and provide a more robust security system.
- Third Party Audit: Its always good to engage professionals to analyze and upgrade the security systems. Gives an outsider view and helps improve the overall architecture as well.
- Share Best Practices: Share best practices in the peer group to stay updated at all times.
- Monitoring & Alert System: Put in place a robust monitoring and alert system so that suspicious activities can be detected and contained at initial stages itself.
- Hire Professional Hackers: Yes! Hire them to test your data security systems inside out and show you the vulnerabilities. Rectify the gaps in time to ensure foolproof data security
