Kaspersky Lab IT Security Economics Report revealed that 77% of companies were hit by some kind of cyber attack during the past year.
Moreover, the report stated that the situation gets worse in the holiday season, especially during the sales season.
Furthermore, the report explained that in that period, there are more shoppers online and at stores than usual, which makes cyber criminals want to attack stores as the revenues rise, so the attacks increase as distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and point of sale (POS) system attacks were the main factors making the situation even worse.
“The holiday season boosts sales for retailers, but also makes retailer revenues an attractive target for cyber criminals to stage successful DDoS attacks against them for a ransom, use POS systems as an entry point for targeted attacks, or steal customer credentials and money,” the report stated.
Meanwhile, the report revealed that 2017 witnessed a series of high-profile cybersecurity breaches targetting payment systems at prestigious companies and brands such as Chipotle, Hyatt Hotels, and Forever 21.
Finally, the report suggested some recommendations for retailers in order not to fall victim to cyberattacks, including keeping e-commerce platforms up-to-date as every new update may contain critical patches to make the system less vulnerable to cybercriminals, using a tailored security solution to protect POS terminals from malware attacks, educating customers about the possible cyber threats they may encounter while shopping online and offline, and making sure that POS terminals run the latest version of software and change the default passwords.
It should be mentioned that Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company that aims at providing security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments, and consumers around the globe.
