Cyberattacks on Retailers Could Increase 20% this Holiday Season

Cyberattacks on Retailers Could Increase 20% this Holiday Season
Commodity malware and ransomware continue to be the biggest threats, says VMWare Carbon Black.

A new analysis of threat data suggests retailers will experience a 20% increase in attempted cyberattacks this holiday shopping season, according to VMWare Carbon Black.


Commodity malware and ransomware will continue to account for a major portion of attack volumes. But often these attacks will be just a means to attain other broader objectives, the security vendor says in a report out this week.


"Retailers should be most concerned that their websites or mobile apps will be hijacked via watering-hole attacks," says Tom Kellermann, head cybersecurity strategist at VMware Carbon Black.


The other major concern is lateral movement, where attackers gain an initial foothold in a network and then expand their presence to other systems, he says. Sometimes, threat actors can attack the network of a retailer's business partner or vendor and use that access to break into the retailer's system.


VMWare Carbon Black's analysis combined data gathered from its retail customers during the 2018 holiday season, from this year, and from a recent survey of 20 CISOs and major retail organizations


The analysis shows a surprisingly high proportion of retailers already have been impacted by recent cyberattacks. More than seven in 10 organizations (73%) reported an increase in online attacks over the past year, and 40% said they had lost revenue in 2019 as the result of one.


One-third of the CISOs VMWare Carbon Black surveyed described their organizations as having experienced an attack where threat actors got into their networks by moving laterally from the network of a partner or vendor. Troublingly, one in five organizations experienced a destructive attack, such as one involving ransomware or disk-wiping m ..

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