Hackers have been around for a long time, and they are becoming more sophisticated every day. With more information added to the cloud, data centers, and the network, companies are exposed to greater vulnerabilities, and an increased risk of attacks.
As more customers turn to mobile payments, wearable devices, and use in-store Wi-Fi networks to look up product information, retailers need to be confident that their customers’ data is as safe as possible, and that they have a plan in the event that their company gets hacked. Associates are also embracing more digital tools to keep up with customer demands, such as mobile apps, inventory management technology, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), etc., because of the changing behavior of both customers and employees, having a secure network in place is more than needed, it’s a critical aspect to your digital business.
A retail breach can potentially be an enormous financial loss, but can also damage brand reputation and customer trust. This is a major concern for retailers, because when customers lose trust in a brand, they can easily turn to a competitor they believe is more secure.
According to the recent Cisco 2017 Midyear Cybersecurity Report, retailers are facing the following concerns today:
- 54 percent said they’d dealt with public scrutiny due to data breaches
- 32 percent lost revenue due to attacks in the past year
- 25% lost customer or business opportunities due to attacks
- When it comes to revenue loss and brand damage, retail security professionals said targeted attacks (38 percent) and insider exfiltration (32 percent) pose the highest security risks to their organizations
- Twenty-four percent of the retail security professionals said they see a lack of trained personnel as a major obstacle to adopting advanced security processes and technology
- Retailers also see a steady stream of security alerts that they can’t address in full: 45 percent see several thousand daily alerts, but only 53 percent of those are investigated
- Retail security professionals said that operations, finance, and brand reputation were the areas of their business most negatively impacted by security breaches
So, how can retailers protect their customers and brand from data breaches, malware, and ransomware attacks?
To protect your retail business against security breaches, you need to stay abreast of new threats and vulnerabilities that your organization may face. You need a solid digital network foundation as a platform that can detect and stop threats before they take place.
Security is most effective when it is integrated into the network and not a standalone project for IT teams. We’ve introduced Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA) for Retail, our secure, intelligent, and automated network that is constantly learning and adapting to detect new breaches before they happen and resolve them as quickly as possible when they do occur.
With Cisco DNA for Retail, secure your customer and corporate data anywhere, in real-time, with continuous, faster threat detection and full visibility into malicious behavior. By embedding security everywhere with the industry’s best threat protection, IT can detect and contain threats over 1000 times faster than the industry average.
Retail businesses can be proactive about security breaches, rather than being reactive. Learn more about Cisco DNA for Retail
You can also download the full Cisco Midyear Cybersecurity Report
Awesome post, with useful information. Thanks for sharing it.
I am agree with you Cisco certifications is providing a secure store enviroment.
You are on point! Retail Businesses can be proactive about security breaches, rather than being reactive. Yes, Cisco DNA for Retail will provide a Secure Store Environment for Customers and the Brand. Thank you.