Report: US Retailers Are Top Targets for Data Breaches

they ranked this as the least effective security method. Only 57 percent of retailers plan to increase the budget for data-at rest (stored data) defense, and only 62 percent for data-in-motion defenses, despite these being more effective.

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“Traditional endpoint and network security are no longer sufficient, particularly for heavy adopters of public cloud resources such as the U.S. retail sector,” the report said, especially with the expanding use of external cloud services like SaaS (software as a service), PaaS (platform as a service) and IaaS (infrastructure as a service).

Where the Money Should Go

 Thales asserts that tools like discovery/classification and encryption or tokenization are key to protecting against IT security breaches today.

Only 26 percent of U.S. retailers polled said they are implementing encryption in the cloud, compared with 30 percent of global retailers.

Fifty-two percent of U.S. respondents cited a lack of perceived need as the top reason for not devoting more resources to tools like encryption and tokenization, while 47 percent also cited impact on business performance and 46 percent were put off by its complexity.

In a past interview with National Jeweler, Kennedy offered a list of cybersecurity recommendations for jewelers specifically, some of which might involve hiring an IT firm.

They include: proper firewalls, up-to-date anti-virus software, the avoidance of “risky” internet sites and the training of staff on the types of mistakes that often let in hackers.

Staff need to be told, or reminded, not to open or click into unknown or suspicious emails, and to look carefully at emails from known parties for misspellings and other anomalies as emails addressed can be spoofed.

Thales said that retailers should “re-prioritize” their IT security toolsets, focusing on ones that offer service-based deployments, platforms and automation to reduce complexity while adding protection.

It also recommended that retailers go beyond national and international compliance measures and employ security tools like encryption and tokenization. Encryption needs to be applied to all platforms, not just desktop and laptop computers.

Specifically, Thales recommends encrypting the cloud, big data, data located within containers and IoT (interconnected devices with IP addresses).

It’s likely that compliance guidelines will one day mandate these practices, the report said, so retailers can benefit from getting a head start on them, hopefully avoiding data breaches in the process.