Many retail businesses were saved during the pandemic because of online shopping. In turn, these businesses were launched among the masses on online platforms which made it easy for hackers to hack them. The online retail industry has become one of the favorite targets among cybercriminals and has become one of the most attacked sectors this year.
If you are a retail store owner then look at the factors that make the retail industry such an enticing target and what they can do to strengthen their security.
Why are retailers so vulnerable to cyber-attacks?
When the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the entire world was forced to change its lifestyle. Many businesses had to go online and sell their services online. According to a report, online shopping sales in the UK rose by 48%.
With the skyscraping rise in sales came the rise in cyberattacks. Retail sites and apps have to be customers centric therefore they hold themselves back from implementing crucial security measures like two-factor authentication. Retailers have access to customer databases which can be used by criminals to send phishing emails, malicious malware that can wreak havoc on the customers.
Types of cyber threats faced by the retail industry
1. Vulnerabilities caused by the IoTs
As businesses have to use cloud computing and third-party vendors supply chains have become a common point of attack. Retailers have vulnerable touchpoints as they don’t have robust cyber security. Also, an increase in the retailers using IoT devices like security cameras can allow the hacker to install malware on the PoS system that can record card swipes and PINs of the customers.
2. Gift card hacking
Gift card hacking has become one of the most common cyberattacks in the retail industry. The hackers will collect the unloaded gift cards from the retail and identify the patterns to crack the code. Hackers usually use them to make online purchases or fool people.
3. Refund fraud
Refund fraud is one of the banes of digital evolution for the retail sector. Hackers will fool the customers and the business owners by faking the receipts and stolen payment information.
How can the retail industry protect itself from cyberattacks?
1. Strengthen their domain and network security
Domain misconfigurations can lead to spoofing and phishing attacks. According to Proofpoint, 88% of the organizations worldwide have experienced phishing attacks. This can badly affect the website’s CMS and administrative portal and can badly expose it to hackers. Retailers have to consider their cybersecurity policies as they are the very basics of network security.
For More Information: Identifying Cyber Threats in the Retail Industry & How you can Secure it?
The amount of business lost because of cyber-attacks averaged 1.52 million dollars, a report by IBM states.2020 was a year smacked by unprecedented cybercrimes with a soaring number of data breaches, state-sponsored cyberattacks, and ransomware attacks.
Even the major organizations, including VMware, Nvidia, Intel, and Cisco, fell victim to malware attacks.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, IT company Orion software was targeted by malware attack into their systems to access critical data of blue-chip companies, universities, hospitals, and other government agencies.In June 2021, LinkedIn found that 700 million of its users’ data had been posted on a dark web forum.
The breach has impacted more than 90% of its user base.
It was discovered that a hacker ‘God User’ posted a scraped data sample containing information that includes email addresses, phone numbers, geolocation records, gender identifiers, and other social media details.
The hacker said that the data was obtained through LinkedIn’s Application Programming Interface (API).Also, Dubsmash, Adobe, My Fitness Pal, NetEase, and numerous other businesses have borne the brunt of similar attacks, which have badly impacted millions of user accounts.Data will be the leading concern for businesses all around the world.
Mobile network security vulnerabilities are not new, and they will not go away with 5G.
Overall, 5G is more secure than 4G, but they will usher in a wave of new IoT applications, but will it be safe.cy5G networks will usher in a wave of new IoT (Internet of Things) applications.
As with the implementation of any new technology, it is vital to ensure that a secure foundation is in place.
This is especially important when we consider that 5G will accelerate the deployment of smart devices and the applications they support.https://www.pamten.com/blog/iot-risk-management/
Cybersecurity experts are raising alarms about “smishing,” a unique form of phishing that attempts to deliver malicious links or infected applications to cell phones via text or SMS messages.
1.What is AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) ?AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) is a science field and software that is finding the decision mechanism similar to human brain’s do .
It has become a paramount part of the technology industry .AI can do each and every things like a human do such asSpeech recognitionLearningPlanningProblem solvingAbility to manipulate and move objects ,etc .Infographic byAnything you can do , AI can do better .2.
What is the difference between AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) and ML ( Machine Learning ) ?Artificial IntelligenceArtificial intelligence is a science field that is interested in finding solutions to complex problems like humans do.A decision mechanism that is similar to a real human decision mechanism is tried to be modelled with some algorithms.It is based on human intelligence .The idea behind AI is to program machine to carry out tasks in more human ways or smart ways .AI results in knowledge or making your system intelligent .Machine LearningMachine learning is a subdomain of artificial intelligence.
For example , While typing in mail or normal mobile sms , ML will think and understand what human wants to write or do , depending on that time will be consumed more and less efforts to do imperative tasks .ML results in data to extract information .3.
For the sake of clarity, following application categories can be examined:Spam Filter Applications (spamassassin)Network Intrusion Detection and PreventionFraud detectionCredit scoring and next-best offersBotnet DetectionSecure User AuthenticationCyber security RatingsHacking Incident Forecasting4.
How can AI play a huge role in Cyber Security ?Currently, AI has already entered fields like healthcare, manufacturing, education and cyber security.
