Steve Grobman, SVP & CTO It goes without saying that e-commerce has brought an irreversible transformation to the retail industry and the way consumers make purchases. Retailers across the globe are setting up online shops by leveraging new age technology solutions and services to remain at par with the ecommerce companies. As digital technologies continue to make a greater impact in the retail industry with each passing day, the industry participants are, however, exposed to a wide range of cyberattacks.
The hackers and the different forms of cyberattackers in the online space lie in wait constantly to find even the minutest of loopholes within organizational networks. Once they break into a network, they use multiple techniques to wreak havoc that can possibly ruin a retailer’s reputation built over the years. With retailers topping almost every cybersecurity incident report, it is of utmost importance that the leadership teams at these firms understand the risk of a security breach and invest in deploying effective cybersecurity solutions. According to information from top research companies monitoring cyber breach statistics, the average cost of annulling an invasion is set to rise, and retailers, both large and small, must invest in cybersecurity lest they walk into the trap set by cybercriminals in the online world.
To illustrate, as consumer orders begin to escalate, retailers engage with many third-party partners to handle logistics and delivery. The coming together of disparate companies for business and the subsequent integration of systems and technologies often creates gaps in security. Presently, hackers have seen this path as an avenue to enter into the business networks and find their way into the heart of the business systems to cause maximum damage.
Since its inception in 1987, McAfee, an independent cybersecurity company, is inspired by the idea of collaborating with other software vendors to build cybersecurity solutions that can protect online environments under all circumstances. The acclaimed cybersecurity solutions and services provider, McAfee, aims to block hackers from exploiting connected network terminals by designing, developing, and deploying best-in-class solutions.
Visibility across All Operations
With data breaches growing in number and in their impact, it is critical to understand the retail industry’s standpoint as to the vulnerabilities that are being exploited most frequently. McAfee’s MVISION suite can transform a retailer’s cybersecurity posture to be resilient against any mala fide attempt to cause harm to individuals or the business. As part of the MVISION suite, McAfee offers an endpoint security solution, enterprise policy orchestrator, cloud security solution, and EDR.
With cloud computing finding massive adoption in the enterprise world, retailers are jumping onto the cloud bandwagon to take advantage of its many benefits. McAfee, through its MVISION Cloud solution, is aiding its clients in reducing the time to adopt new digital technologies. It ensures that clients are covered at all times, and are empowered with data visibility by preventing the loss of any information through advanced threat protection.
McAfee, aims to block hackers from exploiting connected network terminals by designing, developing, and deploying best-in-class solutions
The retail industry is plagued by hackers who aim to siphon consumer data, and later utilize that stolen information to demand a ransom. Technology has improved product delivery and made shopping an engaging digital experience for the buyer, however, it has left users unprotected. To offer protection to retailers across their supply chain, McAfee deploys Endpoint Security, a solution that offers retailers complete endpoint security surveillance. The solution leverages machine learning to respond to any breaches and prevents cyberattacks from happening again. It allows for security across multiple operating systems and builds a tough wall of collaborative defenses against cyber fraudsters.
To adhere by the norms set by regulatory boards on handling consumer data, McAfee leverages its MVISION ePO security management module that ensures retailers are meeting the compliance mandates. The digital tools let users gain total visibility and control over networks, and the strategy employed to deploy applications and operations to a cloud infrastructure allows for the entire process to be completed without the hassle of setting up an in-house systems infrastructure.
Proactive Cybersecurity
As a pioneer of the cybersecurity realm, McAfee takes pride in being a top investigator to search, find, and derive new age attack prevention methods.
Through its top-class research facilities, McAfee revealed that early adoption of cybersecurity solutions at retail outlets would help identify the latest trends affecting the industry, hence, allowing for future updates to be prepared for those types of attacks.It will aid developers at McAfee to build counter-effective functionality to prevent cyberfraudsters from utilizing advanced techniques to breach operational networks.
At McAfee, the idea is to enlighten cybersecurity professionals on the steps they should take to protect attack-surfaces with least effort and time. By accommodating the best practices, McAfee’s new-age cyber protection technologies, they can reap the benefits that come with early adoption. The goal is to prolong product effectiveness by identifying potential threats and building resilient countermeasures into their cybersecurity solutions.
"McAfee’s MVISION suite can transform a retailer’s cybersecurity posture to be resilient against any mala fide attempt to cause harm to individuals or the business"
An Emphatic Partnership Story
McAfee is partnering with Empathy, a payment device manufacturer, to bring cybersecurity to POS for retailers. The collaboration will see McAfee integrate its Embedded Control software directly into Empathy’s EM10 and EM08 mobile payment devices.
The devices prevent unauthorized access to both internal and external users and enable the systems to be tamper-proof and free of malware. As hackers continue to devise new strategies to embezzle money from retail outlets through POS stations and payment gateways, retailers using Empathy’s devices are now treated to a whole new world of efficient and effective cybersecurity measures.
McAfee ensures that only the software that is authorized to run on a device is given permission, and it does so by making an entry of it onto a whitelist. The cybersecurity solution provider also offers support for compliance with PCI-DSS and other such mandates that are created to protect financial transaction and personal data. It allows retailers to have full management control, updates, and system downtime analytics throughout the lifecycle of a payment device.
Having established a name for itself in the cybersecurity arena, McAfee wishes to continue forward by constantly researching methods to counter cyber fraudsters effectively, and bring the security solutions of tomorrow, today. As hackers continue to develop new forms of attacking techniques, McAfee continues to keep a watch on trends in the retail industry. The aim is to devise methods of active prevention that are not only efficient but also ensure a sustainable future.
