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Retailers ‘struggling to balance customer experience with IT security’

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Retailers are struggling to balance the challenges of delivering increased footfall, bigger basket sizes, and an enhanced customer experience with their fundamental technology and IT security needs.

That’s the conclusion of a survey conducted in May 2019 at RetailEXPO 2019 by Cybera, which revealed that offering a differentiated customer experience (31 percent) and increasing footfall (28 percent) are the biggest challenges for retailers.

In addition, another recent report showed that poor customer experiences cost British retailers up to £102 billion in lost sales each year.

Retailers are well aware of the need to positively differentiate themselves, with 83 percent of respondents in the Cybera survey citing that delivering an enhanced in-store customer experience is very important.

Cybera says the key to addressing all these new challenges is additional applications and services, the majority of which will rely on secure, stable, and scalable network technology. However, nearly one quarter (23 percent) of the respondents have not introduced additional services to their stores in the past 12 months.

The primary inhibitors included cost—25 percent said they thought it would be too expensive—followed by IT security concerns (19 percent) and a belief that their network would not support additional applications (14 percent).

Moreover, many retailers noted the ever-evolving regulatory landscape—including GDPR, PCI, and the upcoming PSD2—as an added distraction. Nearly half (47 percent) said they were concerned about new regulatory demands, admitting it was time to review their technology and processes.  

Interestingly, less than 10 percent considered IT security to be a key business challenge. This is particularly startling compared to the findings of the British Retail Consortium’s annual crime survey, which found that members are generally seeing a growth in the number of cyber-attacks, continuing previous years’ patterns. Nearly 80 percent of respondents in that survey said the volume of cyber-attacks and breaches had increased in 2018 over the previous year.

Cybera SVP and GM EMEA, Hubert da Costa, said, “Retail technology and customer demands are constantly changing, but one thing that will always be critical is customer experience. The growth of IoT in retail is staggering and it threatens the ability to deliver a consistent, high-quality customer experience. All of these network-enabled devices are disparate, which means separate management and requirements. This IoT growth is challenging for retailers—many of whom operate remote, smaller-footprint sites managed by a staff with limited IT expertise. The solution is to leverage a network platform that enables them to deliver these new breakthrough apps and services quickly, easily, and without compromising their security.”

MPs concerned over hacking threat to critical national infrastructure

 960 640 Stuart O'Brien
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Two thirds of MPs consider the compromise of critical national infrastructure to be the biggest cyber security threat facing the UK.

A year on from the cyber attack on parliamentary emails, a YouGov survey commissioned by NCC Group has gauged the opinions of MPs in the House of Commons with regards to their personal cyber security, the cyber risks associated with national security and societal wellbeing, and the consequences of a successful attack on parliament.

The results revealed that 62% of MPs across all regions, including 70% of Conservatives and 57% of Labour MPs, consider a compromise of critical national infrastructure to be the biggest risk.

Despite this common ground between MPs across parties on the threat to critical national infrastructure, the survey indicated divides with regards to the severity of other cyber threats. 42% of Conservatives said that they consider a compromise of nuclear capabilities to be one of the top two threats, compared to just 14% of Labour MPs, while 44% of Labour MPs considered democratic interference to be a significant threat, compared to 16% of Conservative MPs.

Alongside this, the survey highlighted that 75% of all MPs are concerned that a breach of their personal email could negatively affect the cyber security of the House of Commons, highlighting that most MPs understand the crucial role they personally play in enhancing the UK Parliament’s security posture.

It was also revealed that, in the event of a successful cyber attack, 73% of all MPs considered the breach of constituents’ privacy to be their biggest concern, alongside a leak of sensitive information relating to parliamentary business (46%).

These results have been released ahead of a meeting at the House of Commons, which addressed the cyber threats challenging the UK political landscape and outlined how MPs can best contribute towards tackling this growing threat.

Ollie Whitehouse, global chief technical officer at NCC Group: “It’s very positive to see that a majority of MPs are aware of the different threats we face and realise the gravitas of a successful attack, particularly with regards to our resilience as a nation.

“In recent years, the government has been proactive in implementing initiatives to strengthen the UK’s stance against evolving technical and geopolitical threats which attempt to compromise the integrity of our nations. MPs play a significant role in these initiatives, so it’s important to maintain continued education around modern threats and informed dialogue amongst all stakeholders. This will ensure that parliamentary staff at all levels understand the steps they need to take, in both their professional and personal lives, in order to address cyber risk head on.”