Data breaches worry retail body | IR News

Data breaches worry retail body

Posted Date: 27/07/2012

By Inside Retail

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has organised seminars on protecting data, worried by the growing number of data breaches affecting Australian retailers and their customers.

ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said the problem highlighted a need for retailers to be educated on how to protect their business from a data breach and minimise that risk.

With a growing number of retailers moving from traditional bricks and mortar into multichannel retailing, the risk of a data breach was greater than ever before. The ARA has partnered with Qualified Security Assessment (QSA) Company, Stickman Consulting to help combat the issue through education.

A recent report from the Ponemon Institute said almost 40 per cent of global data breaches are caused by negligence. The average cost of a data breach to Australian companies is about $2.16 million per incident.

“Such figures are alarming and could possibly wipe out some smaller retailers as well as cause a lot of brand damage to larger ones. Retailers will be surprised to learn the extent of damage a data breach can cause the industry.

“Criminals are constantly looking out for vulnerable businesses, especially those with credit card data, to conduct fraud instantly using that data. Last financial year the Australian Payments Clearing Association said the cost of card fraud in Australia was $273 million.

“The ARA has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Stickman Consulting, supporting a series of webinars and seminars the firm is running to educate retailers on how to minimise business risks associated with data breaches.

Stickman CEO Ajay Unni said his company is committed to raising awareness and educating Australian businesses large and small on data security.

The upcoming webinars are on 1 August, 8 August and 22 August 2012. Stickman consulting will also be running monthly webinars on the first Wednesday of every month to raise awareness and educate businesses on what steps to take to avoid and minimise the risk of a data breach.

More webinar dates: http://www.stickman.com.au/webinars

Keywords: ARA, QSA, Stickman

Comments:

Wednesday, September 26, 2012 by Barancan

ClausIt's going to get even more difficult with Cloud Computing. If I'm right in tnnkhiig that users don't care, don't know and in many cases can't find out where their personal data is located, then the regulators job becomes vital.In the UK they're tightening up on financial regulation in the Retail industry in October, but can't even handle virtual servers. Cloud applications will be excluded unless they gain a lot of knowledge before then. If they got turbo boosted they might even help to protect the local Managed Services market by encapsulating governence, data and privacy information issues in their rules, but it doesn't look likely.For the IT managers of services companies, focusing on issues of trust will help protect their organisations from legal action. However it's going to get even more difficult to handle the balance between modern applications, customer and citizen privacy.Can you tell us about the techniques they might develop to cope?Best WishesMartin

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