While the economy recovered and retailers grew more optimistic, 2014 was "the year of the POS breach," with many highly publicized attacks compromising millions of personal records. As a result, some of the largest and most popular retail brands were severely damaged.
Senior executives at businesses of all sizes understand all too well that today's global economy is still not adequately protected against cyberattacks, despite years of effort and spending in the multibillion-dollar range each year. But until recently, many CFOs may not have been considered an integral part of an organization's security team or understood how to respond to security risks and the implications for their organizations. But times have changed and many CFOs are being called upon to help promote cyber security and identify threats.
Analyst Insight: There is now a false sense of security in supply chain risk management. Sixty-eight percent of companies believe they are better prepared than five years ago, yet supply chains experience an average of three material disruptions a year, according to Supply Chain Insights. Supply chain preparedness is for standard risk factors, such as financial viability, natural disasters, product quality, globalization and outsourcing. But, what about other risks and the security of supply chain? – Mickey North Rizza, VP Strategic Services, BravoSolution
In 2014, organizations were caught off guard by the increase in advanced threats targeting vulnerabilities within business-critical applications running on SAP platforms. Everything from malware being loaded up on RFID devices and being inserted into the manufacturing process, to high-risk "denial of service" vulnerabilities are challenging organizations to re-think their current approach to protecting critical data.
Item-level intelligence requirements spur the growth of RFID across sectors such as industrial, manufacturing, retail, transportation, security, healthcare and consumer applications. RFID has quietly crossed the chasm exhibiting a stable - yet still innovative - market. So what will drive the market in 2015?
It's been a year since Target's data breach and retailers are still vulnerable even as the busiest shopping season kicks into high gear, warn security experts, largely due to a lack of focus on asset management.
It’s not a surprise that cyber crime is costly for organizations. The cost of any lost productivity, combined with the fallout of any compromised data, the impact to the organization's reputation, and the cost to clean up and recover from an attack all add up. Not to mention the cost of the time lost.
Google has dropped its cloud computing prices and other vendors are expected to follow suit, but the lower pricing may not be the key lure for attracting enterprises to the cloud.
After the massive data breaches that have plagued retailers from Target to Home Depot in recent years, a new study shows that retail is the most compromised industry in terms of data security.
It's past time for all major companies – certainly in the Fortune 500, but the advice carries on down into even medium-sized organizations – to carve out a C-level role focusing solely on security.
