Thales: data breaches start to fall yet 88% of retailers still consider themselves vulnerable to data threats

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Thales, a leader in critical information systems, cybersecurity and data security, announces the results of its 2017 Thales Data Threat Report, Retail Edition, issued in conjunction with analyst firm 451 Research. According to U.S. retail respondents, 52 percent have experienced a data breach in the past. The majority (88 percent) consider themselves 'vulnerable' to data threats, with 19 percent stating they are 'very' or 'extremely' vulnerable.

Click to Tweet: Over half of U.S. retailers have experienced a data breach #2017DataThreat http://bit.ly/2uwoKY9

Year-over-year breach rate improvement
Encouragingly, U.S. retail data breaches in the past year dropped from 22 percent in the 2016 survey to 19 percent this year. This number is lower than any other U.S. vertical polled for the 2017 report, including healthcare (20 percent), financial services (24 percent) and the U.S. federal government (34 percent). However, U.S. retailers may be failing to learn from past mistakes; more than half (11 percent) of the 19 percent that were breached this year had also experienced a breach previously.

Garrett Bekker, principal analyst for information security at 451 Research says:
"First, the good news: Only 19 percent of U.S. retail respondents reported being breached last year, significantly less than the global average. However, breach results were not so rosy for global retail – a staggering 43 percent of global retail respondents reported a breach in the past year alone, approaching twice the global average. These distressing breach rates serve as stark proof that data on any system can be attacked and compromised. Unfortunately, organizations keep spending on the same security solutions that worked for them in the past, but aren't necessarily the most effective at stopping modern breaches."

Budget misallocation hindering security
Seventy seven percent of U.S. retail organizations are increasing IT security spending, but are not concentrating spending where it will make the most difference. Eighty eight percent of respondents selected network security as 'very' or 'extremely' effective at protecting data from breaches – even as network security fails to keep out attackers and is unable to protect data that is increasingly stored in the cloud. Spending patterns also indicate a focus on what has worked in the past with the planned spending increases on network (67 percent) and endpoint (63 percent) protection. Data-at-rest approaches, which have proven to be effective at protecting the data itself, came in second from last (49 percent) in terms of retailer security spending priorities.

Pressures to use advanced technology increase risk
According to the report, 95 percent of U.S. retail organizations will use sensitive data in an advanced technology environment (such as cloud, big data, IoT and containers) this year. However, 53 percent of respondents believe that sensitive data use is happening in these environments without proper security in place.

Peter Galvin, vice president of strategy, Thales e-Security says:
"It's encouraging that yearly retail data breach rates have finally started to drop, but rates are still quite high. With tremendous sets of detailed customer behavior and personal information in their custody, retailers are a prime target for hackers so should look to invest more in data-centric protection. And as retailers dive head first into new technologies, data security must be a top priority as they continue to pursue their digital transformation."

Retail organizations interested in improving their overall security postures should strongly consider:

• deploying security tool sets that offer services-based deployments, platforms and automation;
• discovering and classifying the location of sensitive data within cloud, SaaS, big data, IoT and container environments; and
• leveraging encryption and Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) technologies for all advanced technologies.

Please download a copy of the new 2017 Thales Data Threat Report, Retail Edition for more detailed security best practices.

Industry insight and views on the latest key management trends can be found on the Thales e-Security blog at blog.thalesesecurity.com.

Follow Thales e-Security on Twitter @Thalesesecurity, and on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.

About Thales e-Security
Thales e-Security is the leader in advanced data security solutions and services that deliver trust wherever information is created, shared or stored. We ensure that the data belonging to companies and government entities is both secure and trusted in any environment – on-premise, in the cloud, in data centers or big data environments – without sacrificing business agility. Security doesn't just reduce risk, it's an enabler of the digital initiatives that now permeate our daily lives – digital money, e-identities, healthcare, connected cars and, with the internet of things (IoT), even household devices. Thales provides everything an organization needs to protect and manage its data, identities and intellectual property, and meet regulatory compliance – through encryption, advanced key management, tokenization, privileged-user control and high-assurance solutions. Security professionals around the globe rely on Thales to confidently accelerate their organization's digital transformation. Thales e-Security is part of Thales Group.

About Thales
Thales is a global technology leader for the Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales reported sales of €14.9 billion in 2016. With over 25,000 engineers and researchers, Thales has a unique capability to design and deploy equipment, systems and services to meet the most complex security requirements. Its exceptional international footprint allows it to work closely with its customers all over the world.

Positioned as a value-added systems integrator, equipment supplier and service provider, Thales is one of Europe's leading players in the security market. The Group's security teams work with government agencies, local authorities and enterprise customers to develop and deploy integrated, resilient solutions to protect citizens, sensitive data and critical infrastructure.

Thales offers world-class cryptographic capabilities and is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions for defence, government, critical infrastructure providers, telecom companies, industry and the financial services sector. With a value proposition addressing the entire data security chain, Thales offers a comprehensive range of services and solutions ranging from security consulting, data protection, digital trust management and design, development, integration, certification and security maintenance of cybersecured systems, to cyberthreat management, intrusion detection and security supervision through cybersecurity Operation Centres in France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Hong Kong.

SOURCE Thales