Retail Security: What Solutions Providers Need To Know

By The Business Solutions Network

If you are looking for a simple fix to your retail customers’ security challenges, there isn’t one, say the experts. But that does not mean it’s a lost cause.

If cybersecurity were judged by newspaper headlines alone, we would have to conclude that retail was the number one vertical being targeted. However, according to the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, U.S. government agencies ranging from the Army to the IRS receive the most attacks (more than 70 breach incidents per day). Even the financial services industry accounts for approximately twice as many data breach incidents as retail. Yet retail is the most newsworthy because that is where consumers spend their money, often in the form of credit/debit payment.

Sadly, too many merchants, especially small to midsize retailers and restaurants, lack the IT resources the big-name companies enjoy, and many feel helpless when it comes to protecting themselves and their clients from security breaches. After all, they reason, if big names like Target and Home Depot are being breached, how can they avoid the inevitable? The truth is that while there is no security solution 100 percent foolproof, there are steps that can be taken that greatly reduce the odds. What’s nice, too, is that IT solutions providers don’t have to charge enterprise prices to provide their customers with enterprise-level protection.