Cyber Security: Assessing The Threat

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

Alarmism sells. It’s a fact that’s no lost on cyber security software vendors. In recent years, dramatic headlines have done little to calm the nerves of retail LP and risk mitigation professionals tasked with protecting their ever-proliferating store networks. But securing those networks comes at a cost, and in the face of the fear mongering designed to spur security sales, it’s important to maintain calm and assess the reality of the threat of cyber attack in your specific business.

In 2014, research from the Center for Strategic and International Studies pegged the annual, global cost of cyber crime at about $445 million.  That study and the 2014 HP-commissioned Ponemon Institute report Cost of Cyber-Crime paint a grim picture; The volume of cyber-attacks climbed 176 percent since 2010. The average annual cost of cyber-crime for U.S. businesses is up 9 percent to nearly $13 million. The weekly average for successful cyber attacks is 138. It takes businesses an average of 170 days to detect a breach.

By all media accounts, the retail sector appears to be especially hard hit. When a major retail brand suffers the unauthorized exploitation of a network, the world quickly knows about it. But is that perception reality?

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