The retail industry becomes one of the most obvious targets for cyberattacks because it deals with a huge amount of personal information during an online transaction, especially during the festivals

Fremont, CA: Festival season marks the highest traffic in the retail websites with all festival offers and seasonal discounts going around. Generally, retailers do advance preparedness like hiring seasonal employees, establishing a holiday customer service plan, and ensuring the necessary inventory stock, but least do they consider about the threats like cyberattacks, which are more obvious during such peak times.

The retail industry becomes one of the most obvious targets for cyberattacks because it deals with a huge amount of personal information during an online transaction, especially during the festivals. There are number of cases where top retailers of the U.S. became the victim of data breaches. One shouldn't be fooled that cyberattacks don't happen in a small industry, rather it is the small industry where number of cyberattacks are recorded every year. A report discloses 43 percent of the cyber attacks target small businesses, and only 14 percent are able to defend themselves.

Here are few tips to be prepared and defend cyberattacks:

Secure the Internet-Connected Devices

While internet-connected devices help retailers to keep track of inventory and foot traffic analysis, they also serve the pathway for the cybercriminals to break-in the company's data. It puts the small businesses at risk unless they take proper precautions. Small businesses must be careful while choosing the devices they use and also address the security concerns from the beginning. It is also advisable to establish a security protocol to ensure preventative measures are in place in case of a threat.

Extra Careful to Third Party Vendors

Most of the retailers are resorting to e-commerce for better sales, global reach, and compete with industry giants. This increases the small business's work to deal with a multiple number of third-party vendors, which in turn opens the door to threats like cyberattacks. They can enter the system through third-party vendors and rob anyone like users, sellers, or advertisers. Hence it is important to keep track of all the activities performed by the third-party vendors and monitor them from time to time.

Advanced Network Security Protection

With an increase in the number of connected devices every day, the threat of cyber-attack also increases. It is estimated that 200 connected devices will be hacked each year by 2020, with an average business loss of $200,000. An effective way to protect small businesses against such cyberattacks is to have an advanced network security appliance and firewall solutions. This can identify and block threats like intrusion, malware, ransomware, phishing, and prevents them from entering into a company's network.

Retailers must create an efficient cyber-security strategy to ensure they are completely equipped with the tools to anticipate and protect against cyberattacks.

Check out: Top Network Monitoring Solution Companies