Retail Cybersecurity: How to Protect Payment Card Data and Customer Information

Cybersecurity is of paramount importance today, as technology sits at the heart of almost every business and enterprise in the developed world. From supermarket conglomerates to local independent sellers, online retail (or e-commerce) has become a second shop-front – and in some cases, the primary shop front, as localised businesses find new global audiences through a global sales portal.

The convenience of online retail brings with it some key caveats, chief amongst them the risk of cybercrime. In 2023 alone, 50% of businesses reported falling victim to some form of cybercrime – a number that climbed, too, with respect to business size. Cybercrime takes many forms, from data breaches to straight theft of money; here, we’ll focus on the latter. As a retailer in a digital space, what can you do to reduce the risks associated with taking card payments online?

Implementing Strong Authentication Methods

One of the main problems businesses face with regard to tightening up their cybersecurity relates to ‘testing’ the credentials of the customer. In many cases, identity fraudsters have been able to use data breaches to find just enough information on an individual to spoof them online, and gain access to their credit.

It is for this reason that two-factor authentication, or 2FA, has become such an important piece of the puzzle for modern e-retailers. Two-factor authentication vastly reduces the risk of identity fraudsters accessing an account, without already having all the information necessary to make better financial gains elsewhere.

Employee Training and Awareness

Though cybercrime has an intimidating name, and is often associated with the stereotype of the ‘genius’ hacker digitally sneaking their way into a server’s backend to complicatedly capture funds or information, the reality is far more banal. Cybersecurity is as much a matter of human awareness as it is tech resilience, and it is the former that often bullet-proofs e-commerce transactions. 

Training staff across your business on digital safety, including the telltale signs of phishing scams, can help close the gaps in your business, and reduce the chance of a bad actor gaining personal information via the true back-end – the staff cohort of the business. Regular training instils cyber-safety concepts, and increases the chance that one worker catches another’s mistakes before they cost the customer – or you.

Regular Security Audits and Vulnerability Assessments

The above tips are not enough alone to futureproof your digital storefront, nor do they guarantee that your business will not be one of the 50% in next year’s cybercrime statistics. However, there is more that you can do to swing the odds in your favour – audits ranking highly.

Auditing your business’ cyber-safety effectively means testing it. Like with fire drills, you should be auditing the cyber-safety awareness of your department on a regular basis, in order to catch issues before it’s too late. Doing this greatly improves your business’ resilience, and ensures your customers’ experience is ultimately all-but flawless.