i3 - September/October 2016 - 25

With today's connected digital products
often involving follow-up content access,
user-response options and interactive
features, retailers and manufacturers should examine the "entire
trust chain" from consumers to backend operations to assure cyberprotection, says Kiran Mantha, principal and retail cyber risk services
leader at Deloitte Advisory. He points to liability and unexpected
points of intrusion as part of the new retail landscape.
"Cyber is just a piece of the puzzle," Mantha explains, noting that
product safety, personally identifiable information (PII) and strong
relationships with suppliers, partners, law enforcement and regulators should be part of a business's defense against cyber invasions.
"It doesn't matter whether you're big or small," Mantha insists.
"I've heard many companies say, 'We're too small' to be attacked. I say,
'That makes you an easy target.'"
Tom Litchford, vice president of retail technology at the National
Retail Federation, takes it even further.
"We've seen a strong shift from pure perimeter defense strategies to
include better intelligence-driven defenses, earlier breach detection and
mitigation." Litchford adds, "We're seeing companies understand that
the cyber problem is not an information technology problem, rather
it's a business risk problem that requires oversight across the C-suite."
"Cybercriminals have never been more brazen or bold in their
attacks," says Limor Kessem of IBM Security. She predicts that
"mobile threats will see a quantum leap in fraud capabilities" and that
"cyber extortion will proliferate."

PHOTOGRAPH BY BILL HINTON/GETTY IMAGES

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
These warnings and advice are at the core of the rallying cry to
build and maintain virtual walls to keep out malicious invaders. An
estimated $75 billion annually is spent worldwide for cybersecurity
in all categories (financial, retail, other businesses plus government/
military and academia), according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch,
which foresees an annual global layout of $170 billion by 2020.
As The Economist observed, the scale of the cybersecurity problem "is
little more than a guesstimate," but it described the problem as a battle
against the "supposed annual ... 90 million cyber-attacks."
Early this year, President Obama unveiled the Cybersecurity
National Action Plan (CNAP) to establish short-term and long-term
actions for business and government digital safety. The non-partisan
Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity is developing
the plan to strengthen cybersecurity in both the public and private
sectors and includes business, technology and academic leaders,
such as current and former CEOs of MasterCard, IBM and Frontier
Communications, executives from Uber and Facebook, plus banking,
military and university experts.
For the retail industry, Mantha, Litchford, their organizations plus
scores of other experts are developing tools and tactics to help stores
and their suppliers avoid the ever-growing threats of cyber-intrusions.
http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/129694 http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/129694 https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/04/13/announcing-presidents-commission-enhancing-national-cybersecurity
i3 - September/October 2016

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