The past year has been brutal for big retailers when it comes to cybercrime. Breaches have compromised customer records, disrupted online sales and caused network outages that impacted customer deliveries.
It’s not as though these companies had no defenses. They did. The alarming reality is that hackers are adopting new methodologies to overcome traditional defensive technologies – and are succeeding. The scale and success of these intrusions are, in part, because criminals are increasingly using AI to develop more sophisticated malware, craft more convincing phishing schemes and more accurately pinpoint system loopholes.
A robust security posture today requires the proper integration of multiple tools to combat this expanding threat environment. Retailers must adapt and expand their security capabilities to provide the necessary protection.
While every industry is threatened, several factors make retail particularly vulnerable, including changing customer habits, the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and limited network visibility.
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New Shopping Habits Mean New Vulnerabilities
It’s no secret that customer shopping habits have changed. Online shopping is more popular than ever, with 20% of all retail purchases expected to take place online this year, according to the January 2024 eMarketer Forecast. (The entire global ecommerce market is expected to total $6.3 trillion by year’s end – up from $5.8 trillion in 2023.)
All this online shopping has made customers’ information more vulnerable than ever. More than 353 million people were impacted by data breaches in 2023 alone. Despite the many security tech stacks retailers employ, AI has made these attacks both more frequent and more sophisticated. Retailers need to not only understand how AI is being used to infiltrate their networks, but what technologies are available to counteract these attacks.
More Points of Attack: The Spread of IoT
The network is more integrated than ever before. Data and applications are the foundation of business services. IoT is now part of the shopping experience, and retailers use it for things like automated checkout, inventory and data management and supply chain optimization. The increased amount of valuable information, combined with the increased number of IoT devices and access points, means retailers have more vulnerabilities than ever.
Of course, more points of access mean more vectors for hackers to find their way into networks. The risk increases because most of these devices lack screens and can’t run software like Windows, meaning users can’t install security software or use traditional Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) for cyber threats.
Limited Network Visibility
As networks grow ever larger and more interconnected — and as retailers rely more on data for their business — network administrators do not have enough visibility to understand everything traversing the network. This makes it harder to detect where threats are coming from or what shape they are taking. The variety of tools that hackers have at their disposal – malware, phishing schemes, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) as well as data encryption for ransomware extortion – mean that threats can be multidimensional and even change during the attack.
Why NDR Is the Right Defense
These attacks will only become more sophisticated and larger in scale, and retailers will need innovative protection to defend against them. As we know, the danger is not just the loss of customer trust. Hackers also can steal company data and intellectual property or hold critical information hostage. Any of this can threaten an organization’s survival.
But as much as AI is a tool for hackers, it is also a valuable tool for cybersecurity experts. NDR (network detection and response) technology has become a critical component of modern-day cybersecurity solutions, offering proactive, real-time monitoring that detects emerging threats before they cause harm. And when threats are discovered by NDR, a managed security provider can immediately quarantine them and notify security personnel to take further action. Plus, NDR is compatible with traditional EDR. This combination provides an even higher level of protection, with NDR able to catch anomalies EDR could miss and be effective on devices that cannot support EDR.
Consider Upgrading Your Defensive Perimeter
The unfortunate reality is that retailers are ripe targets for hackers. And with AI making cybercriminals ever-more powerful and dangerous, retailers also need to fortify and improve their cybersecurity defenses with smarter, more proactive tech stacks.
Because of changing customer habits, increasing interconnection and high volumes of data that make true network visibility difficult, self-defense technologies like NDR are more critical than ever. Consider bolstering your security through the increased visibility, real-time IoT monitoring and faster incident response rates that NDR can provide to your retail security.
Dan Rasmussen is the SVP and General Manager of the North America Enterprise Division at Hughes Network Systems, bringing over 28 years of expertise. Under his leadership, Hughes remains an industry pioneer, delivering cutting-edge managed cybersecurity services and end-to-end managed network services with high-performing connectivity, tailored for enterprises of all sizes.
