Retailers Must Invest in New Security Procedures, or Major Breaches Could Accelerate

Companies struggle greatly to try to keep their networks safe, including ensuring employee and customer data remains secure.  Major retailers are suffering data breaches that often lead to stolen customer debit and credit card data taken by hackers.

Popular retailer Target was compromised late last year and 40 million customers were affected – and the company has reportedly spent more than $145 million in expenses stemming from the incident.  Target’s sales temporarily dropped, customers were weary to continue shopping there, and it has been an overall public relations nightmare.

Home Depot recently confirmed a breach with up to 56 million potentially affected customers, with some stolen data posted in online cybercriminal forums.  It’s too early to tell what type of financial damage the company will suffer, but Home Depot will deal with the same type of backlash Target did.

Here is what Joe Caruso, Global Digital Forensics CEO noted:

“Most people tend to focus on how many credit card numbers were stolen, almost like it’s a way to score a game… but the numbers that should really be seeing the spotlight more are the ones that put dollar signs to the costly aftermath of a successful breach.”

Companies sometimes fail to even install antivirus and anti-malware technology, and then forget to conduct vulnerability assessments.  GDF recommends that companies be aware of what threat vectors could cause them the most problems, along with identifying weak links in the security chain.

Thank you to Global Digital Forensics for providing us with this information

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