SECURITY/RISK

Merchants’ fraud costs are a growing expense — and the pace shows no sign of slowing.   Fraud losses and management eat 8% of the average e-commerce retailer’s revenue, up from 7.6% in 2016, according to “2017 Financial Impact of Fraud Study: Exploring the Financial Impact of Fraud in a Digital World.” The report is from Vesta Corp. and Javelin Strategy & Research.  

Despite the ramping up of global data regulations, most consumers are concerned about how companies collect and use their information.   In fact, an overwhelming 96% of consumers are "somewhat" to "extremely" concerned about data collection and usage. This is understandable, as more than 75% engage in digital payment transactions at least once a month.  

The National Retail Federation is once again making the case for a new federal law on data breach notifications.   Citing the recent breach at the Equifax credit reporting agency, National Retail Federation and other industry associations are telling Congress that any new federal law on data breach notification should apply to all industries that handle consumer data.   

Target is losing another key executive.   Jackie Rice, Target's chief risk and compliance officer, announced she will be leaving the company at the end of the month. Rice announced that leaving is a personal decision, and she wants to be closer to her family who lives outside of Minneapolis, according to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.  

The Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center (R-CISC) has announced featured speakers for its Retail Cyber Intelligence Summit, held October 3 - 4, 2017, in Chicago.    Among the keynote speakers are Rich Agostino, chief information security officer at Target Corp, who will lead a session titled, "Stepping into Leadership: Staying Ahead of Today's Threats and the Evolving CISO Role," and Kostas Georgakopoulos, CISO at Procter & Gamble, leading a session on the next evolution of information security.  

Digital transformation is accelerating the pace of change within the store environment.

While the number of cyber-attacks have declined in the last year, a majority of companies still feel susceptible to data threats.   This was according to the “2017 Thales Data Threat Report, Retail Edition,” from Thales e-Security and analyst firm 451 Research. The study is based on responses from more than 1100 senior security executives, including in the retail segment, from across the globe.   

The newest batch of start-ups are making their way to Minneapolis for the second annual Target + Techstars retail accelerator program.   After receiving applications from more than 3,000 technology start-ups — 70% of which had a co-founder who is either female or comes from an ethnically diverse background — Target whittled the list down to 10 finalists for this year’s tech accelerator. Companies range from online advertising to rebates to clothing alterations, and hail from Minneapolis to as far as Belgium.