Almost three quarters of retailers have been victims of cyberattack

Some 72 percent of retailers globally have experienced a cyberattack, with 61 percent experiencing one in the last year, yet 50 percent don't have a response plan in place to deal with data breaches.

This is among the findings of a new study carried out by the Ponemon Institute for Keeper Security, which also shows the average cyberattack on a retailer involving the loss of customer/employee data results in 7,772 individual records lost or stolen, with an average price tag of $1.9M from the disruption of normal operations.

Of retailers surveyed 87 percent agree that cyberattacks are becoming more targeted, 67 percent believe they are becoming more severe and 61 percent think they're more sophisticated. The most commonly reported attack methods are phishing (69 percent), web-based attacks (54 percent), and malware attacks (40 percent).

Looking at the factors behind these attacks, budget is a top concern for retailers. Only one in three believe they have adequate budget to achieve strong IT security. However, 93 percent of retailers spend less than 20 percent of their overall IT budget on security, with an average spend of 11.5 percent. Insufficient personnel (91 percent), insufficient budget (51 percent) and no understanding of how to protect themselves from cyberattacks (40 percent) are the most commonly cited challenges preventing fully effective security posture.

"There are billions of stolen credentials on the dark web, and cybercriminals can wait for months for prime opportunities like peak online shopping season to exploit retailers' security vulnerabilities and make illegal purchases," says Darren Guccione, CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security. "The reality is, the cybersecurity problems facing the retail industry are not problems of money or personnel, but of mindset. Retailers need to know there are easily implementable, cost-effective security solutions that can greatly bolster their security posture and largely prevent such cybercrime from happening."

The full report is available from the Keeper website and there's an infographic summary of the findings below.

Photo credit: Tashatuvango/Shutterstock