Online shopping for goods has skyrocketed this year due to the COVID-19 and the measures imposed, with merchants worldwide facing increased risks . Tripwire reports that 78% of retail security workers said in a recent survey that their organizations had taken additional security precautions for the holiday season.
According to the survey, over a third of participants reported that the main factor driving them to take additional measures this year is COVID-19.
“It’s clear that the virus is causing changes in the way retailers think about the holiday season. They’re starting earlier and expecting increased volume, as well as increased risk. With fewer people in stores, there will be more online shopping. More online shopping means more risk, including attacks on both consumers and retailers themselves,” noted Tim Erlin, vice president of product management & strategy at TripWire.
Additional security measures take a variety of forms, with 75% of respondents saying their employers have invested in more tools and technology. Nearly 70% said employers have updated procedures and provided additional training to staff. About half (51%) said their organization has increased its use of managed services, while 39% noted hiring additional employees and contractors.
The majority of organizations said they increased security budgets to give their teams the best chance of preventing breaches during the holiday season. As a result, more than three-fifths (61%) of respondents said their ability to detect and respond to a security breach had improved since the previous year. Nearly a third (32%) of survey participants described their company’s data protection capabilities as “excellent,” a 19% increase from 2017. The percentage of organizations detecting configuration changes within minutes or hours increased from 55% to 97% between 2017 and 2020.
TripWire said that as the shopping landscape continues to evolve, cyber threats will only get worse . Last week, TransUnion released new findings on online retail trends for the 2020 holiday season worldwide. The research shows that suspected online fraud worldwide during the holiday shopping season will increase by 14% compared to the beginning of this year and will be 59% higher than the same period in 2018.
Consumers are aware of the security risks of online, but with COVID-19 cases rising in many parts of the country, the number of online sales in the U.S. is expected to increase between 20% and 30% this year, according to the National Retail Federation.
