Trustwave’s annual security report shows that retail accounted for 22% of the thousands of security breaches the company responded to in 2016, the highest rate of any industry.
And 63% of those retail breaches targeted payment card data.
A high volume of customer credit card information paired with flawed security measures makes retailers a favourite target of hackers.
Trustwave Fights Against Damaging Data Breaches
Trustwave has services customized to the needs of individual retailers both large and small to mitigate that risk.
Trustwave innovates devices and strategies for those SMBs and manages them through its secure cloud platform, TrustKeeper. Along with physical cybersecurity devices at the retailer’s location, the platform also features threat detection, web gateway, email security, network access management, and encryption.
In the case of enterprise retailers, many of those operations have dedicated IT staff, but other responsibilities keep them from focusing on security.
Another feature that sets Trustwave apart in the cybersecurity industry is its expert security team, SpiderLabs.
The team includes testers, incident responders, friendly hackers, forensic investigators, malware reversers, and security researchers, all working to get inside the minds of hackers and help clients.
Simulated Hacker Attacks
The team simulates attacks on computer systems in search of exploitable weaknesses and even uses reverse engineering to uncover details of a breach to see how a hacker entered the system.
For retailers, the consequences can be dire, with a public relations hit, loss of customer trust, and an expensive aftermath — particularly if an incident requires an investigation into compromised payment card information.
With the stakes so high, retailers must take steps to prevent an attack — and quickly respond if one occurs.
Trustwave provides that protection with a dedicated staff focused on the fight against cyber attacks.
When breaches are detected internally instead of externally, say, by a bank or credit card company, the response rate is significantly faster — seven days compared to 60.