The groundbreaking technological advancements have allowed retailers to transform their business in numerous ways. Retailers are continually embracing cutting-edge technology and IoT (Internet of Things) to enhance the shopping experience for their customers. Unfortunately, along with this, retailers often have to face many cyber threats due to the insecure nature of the internet. According to stats, nearly 97% of retailers have included cybercrime in their top risks.
Retailers usually take advantage of online shopping without acknowledging that they are also opening doors for cybercriminals. Without protection, threat actors can try to interfere with the company’s and customers’ data. They can steal away the confidential information of both buyers and sellers and use it to their advantage. Therefore, if your company is also being digitally transformed, then you must safeguard yourself from potential threats.
Keep reading to explore the top cyber threats retailers must watch out for in 2024.
5 Cyber Threats for Retailers in 2024
When it comes to the retail industry, cybercriminals have a lot of vulnerabilities to exploit. Failing to protect your business from these emerging threats can lead to compliance issues and affect customer loyalty and trust. In this article, you will find a list of emerging threats to the retail industry and their possible solutions.
Here are 5 cyber threats retailers commonly encounter.
Formjacking
One of the most critical cyber threats that retailers usually face is formjacking. It’s a low-profile attack in which threat actors inject malicious code into site payment forms. By doing this, they can interfere with the information being transferred from customers to a business. Thus, by having access to it, they can steal away sensitive business and customer data.
However, detecting such attacks becomes nearly impossible when your website isn’t monitored for threats. Also, without having any knowledge about such attacks, it can be challenging to detect anything suspicious. Due to this, businesses acquire managed detection and response solutions to protect their site against cyber criminals.
POS Attacks
POS (point-of-sale) software is an essential need for all online sellers, specifically retailers. This system stores details of total business sales and keeps confidential customer information. Before the evolution of technology, businesses used to have traditional cash registers to manage their sales data.
However, as the POS has emerged as an effective way of organizing data, every retailer has started embracing it. Along with the ease this digital system provides, it can also be exploited by malicious actors. Without solid protection in place, exploiters can infiltrate POS systems and gain insights into customer payment information.
Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks are the most common threats to any online business and, specifically, to digital retailers. These attacks involve professionally crafted business proposals and emails that disguise themselves as legitimate sources. These threats are continuously emerging, and retailers without reliable security can suffer immense damage from such attacks.
Phishing attacks are successful when an internal employee makes a mistake by falling into the trap. People in the organization end up clicking an email with malicious files that put the whole business at risk. Specifically, the retail sector, which tends to store customer data, financial transactions, and databases, is vulnerable to these attacks.
DDoS Attacks
When retailers grow, they usually get more sales through their online presence than through physical stores. In addition, retailers focus more on their online presence because it’s the most preferable shopping method for customers. Unfortunately, as they scale, they start encountering DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks.
DDoS attacks are the most common threats to every business due to their exposure on the Internet. These attacks send sudden traffic spikes to your website server, consuming all its bandwidth. As a result, when bandwidth exceeds, the website becomes inaccessible to its legitimate users. This can lead to disrupted sales and poor customer experience.
Leaks and Data Breaches
Data breaches and leaks can significantly affect any growing company. They have adverse effects on companies that tend to store confidential data of their customers and businesses. Many online retailers save credit card data to improve the shopping experience for returning customers, but doing this actually increases the risk of potential data breaches.
As a result, cybercriminals actively look for vulnerabilities in your system to breach your security. Companies usually don’t have any active protection in place, which is why they suffer the most from data breaches. Having a reliable security solution prevents such attacks from happening and mitigates their impacts. Therefore, you must have a managed detection and response services that monitors your system for data breaches.
Are You Worried About Emerging Cyber Threats?
Cybercriminals are actively looking for businesses that have weakened security to exploit and steal away confidential data. You can lean on professional cybersecurity services to monitor your digital business and prevent attacks. Contact professionals now and implement a rock-solid security solution to keep cybercriminals at bay.