Member Article

Black Friday will reveal cyber security winners and losers

This week, British shoppers are expected to spend more than £10bn on Black Friday sales – nearly four percent higher than last year. On Black Friday itself, £1.74m is expected to be spent every minute online in the UK, with £700m spent before 9am.

“Black Friday sales are expected to hit record levels, which, while good for the British economy, will raise concerns about the opportunities for scammers and cyber criminals, said Ross Brewer, VP and MD EMEA, LogRhythm. “Indeed, all eyes will be on who – and there will be some – will fall victim to hackers’ increasingly persistent and smart tactics. Retailers are prime targets because of the confidential data they hold – whether it’s bank details, email addresses or personal information. There’s absolutely no doubt that cyber criminals will take advantage of this week’s online sales peaks to access networks unnoticed or execute malware that has been sitting on the network for months.

Brewer continued: “As we only saw this week with Uber, it isn’t always a breach that makes headlines, it can be how it’s contained and disclosed. In such a competitive industry, retailers rely heavily on loyalty, which means reputation is key. They need to understand the true value of the data they hold and take the necessary steps to protect it.

“It’s hugely important that retailers are investing in tools that continuously monitors networks for any signs of a compromise. Security intelligence has become so advanced that companies can now automatically detect a compromise as soon as it happens, enabling them to stop the cyberattack before any damage is done. With GDPR only a matter of months away, enterprises and retailers are feeling the pressure to identify, mitigate and disclose an attack at the time that it happens. Only with rapid detection and response capabilities will retailers be able to take cyberattackers head on and protect their customers,” concluded Brewer.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by LogRhythm .