Anytime, Anywhere Storefronts

The unparalleled growth of online and mobile shopping has made retailing more competitive than ever. Operating in this new environment has become both art and science with information technology playing a larger and larger role.

That's because the effective application of technology and mobile communications allows retailers to enhance customer service. It allows them to engage customers anytime, anywhere in more meaningful ways, cut the costs of doing business and generating incremental revenue, all ultimately increasing profits. In short, used effectively and securely, information technology can give a retailer a significant edge over the competition.

Customer Loyalty & Retention

But just as brick and mortar stores faced loss prevention issues, so do online retailers. As they increasingly depend on data to provide enhanced customer service, they become tempting targets for cyber thieves looking to extract critical data such as credit card, social security, and PIN numbers that can be used or sold to the highest bidder.

These threats come in the form of customized malware, botnets, zero-day, advanced persistent threats (APT), spearphishing emails, fraud or the intentional extraction of information by disgruntled or former employees. Brand equity is threatened by damaging attacks designed from the ground up to evade detection by today's single attack vector systems. Even accidental actions from ill-trained network users, partners, or customers can have serious security implications. And no company is immune.

The proof: recent highly publicized attacks that demonstrate well-organized hackers are targeting retail organizations for the confidential customer information they transmit, process and store.  In many cases, the breaches have resulted in the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information used for identity theft. After a breach, companies experience significant financial losses due to fines, lawsuits, tarnished reputation and ultimately customer defections.

Maintaining Customer & Market Confidence

Clearly, customer-specific data must be kept confidential, making it essential to ensure the integrity and availability of all data. The same is true for the networks and systems used to process, store, and manage a company end-to-end, as these systems have become the lifeblood retailers depend upon.

Companies accepting credit or debit cards must demonstrate compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. To retain that compliance continuous auditing is required, so a merchant must prove they are able to incorporate new technologies and to protect against new hacking techniques and the enormous threat they pose - for both business and customer.

Compliance has raised awareness, but not solved the security risks. Just as you must guard against shoplifters or employees that steal, retailers must guard against what is potentially happening on their networks at any point in time. As online business grows, more vigilance is required.

The ISC8 Loss Prevention Program

A new product is about to be unveiled. A product that like an in-store electronic alarm will alert retailers to threats impacting their business by providing real time network visibility whenever, wherever and however it is being compromised.