McAfee Reports Risks to Retailers Using Point Of Sale Systems.McAfee released Retail Reputations: A Risky Business, a report on the growing risks the industry is facing with both legacy and newer point of sale systems (POS). The report discusses how the retailing industry’s reliance on third parties for service and support is creating security vulnerability and privacy issues. Today’s advanced security threats mean that a retailer needs to be more than just PCI DSS compliant in order to protect customer information beyond credit cardholder data.
“The industry is very fragmented with a large base of smaller merchants utilizing secondary market or used point of sale systems,” said Kim Singletary, director of retail solutions marketing at McAfee. “Merchants who do not have a broader security and privacy focus are leaving themselves vulnerable to susceptible systems and processes. If security, compliance and privacy adherence were more transparent to consumers, then retailers could look at these things as business differentiators rather than obligations.”
“Retailers have worked hard not to store cardholder data, however, they still maintain a great deal of specific proprietary customer data on their networks that are a potential treasure trove for criminals and identity thieves,” said Greg Buzek, founder and president of IHL Consulting Group. “When a security breach occurs, retailers are at risk of losing their customers’ trust and business.”
The report calls attention to the need for retailers to invest in protecting consumers’ information. McAfee recommends retailers implement higher levels of security to defend against advanced security threats such as: 1. Application whitelisting; 2. Point of sale integrity control, and 3. Hardware-enhanced security.
