Retail is Unprepared for Social Engineering

The latest data from SecurityScorecard shows the retail industry’s security stance is at an all-time low, and is particularly susceptible to social engineering attacks.

The retail industry is one of a few a primary targets for cybercriminals – they rank fourth (behind financial, healthcare, and government), according to a Carbon Black report. Credit card data is accessible using RAM scrapers (the number 2 data breach method used according to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report).

More importantly, users at store locations can be easily phished or vished via social engineering tactics. Cybercriminals pose as a member of IT or management to take advantage of store employee’s willingness to comply with a call from “corporate”. The reason an emphasis needs to be put on social engineering is that malware (like RAM scrapers) can’t get installed without first tricking the user.