According to recent research from Informatica almost three-quarters (72%) of UK consumers are concerned about the safety of the personal data they share with brands and organisations online.  As retailers strive to unify the digital and physical domain with mobile user apps and other integrated on-line/in-store incentives the significance of this concern will be further compounded. 

A Gemalto study of IT security professionals suggests they may have good reason to be concerned with more than half of respondents to the study identifying that their organisation had suffered repeated data breaches involving payment information in the previous two years, and that they did not know where their payment data was stored.

Alongside the risk to revenues and the risks of fines, penalties and restrictions imposed by the ICO and other governing bodies such as PCI, low consumer trust in the ability of UK retailers to keep personal data safe could also represent a significant blocker to the realisation of the innovation required to optimise customer insight and attain market share. An exciting brand with a tech-savvy customer base may struggle to take customer relationships to the next level with brand apps if users know any information they provide might be subject to an unauthorised outing on pastebin for example.

With more systems interconnected than ever before and access to the tools needed to launch attacks increasingly easy to come by, the attack surface is growing at an alarming rate, making the likelihood of a breach greater than ever. As a result, addressing the security of the extended retail estate is a real challenge and needs a holistic approach that goes way beyond firewalls and security tech.

The good news is that delivering the required improvements to the people, process and technology associated with security doesn't have to be costly. Retail organisations can dramatically improve their security posture through providing better education for staff, by hardening their existing estate using already built-in capabilities and by spending time to properly evaluate and identify the risks to their specific business.

UK retailers increasingly need to optimise security up to and beyond compliance, improving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of critical data to not only mitigate risk, but also to create and maintain the kind of trust with customers, partners and staff that will underpin continued growth and success in a market that remains far from settled.

Craig

Alternative Networks plc published this content on 13 June 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 13 June 2016 08:34:02 UTC.

Original documenthttp://blog.alternativenetworks.com/creating-and-maintaining-trust-for-retail-in-the-digital-age

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