RH-ISAC Holiday Tips Featured on Dark Reading

Red and brown gift bags stuffed with tissue paper

Recently, RH-ISAC’s Director of Intelligence Operations Muktar Kelati spoke with Dark Reading about how retailers can protect themselves from hackers and scammers seeking to put a damper on both holiday spirits and sales. While retail and hospitality organizations are already working on rolling out sales, deals and other holiday promotions, threat actors are also making their lists and checking them twice.

In the article, “8 Holiday Security Tips for Retailers,” Kelati discusses top concerns for retail and hospitality organizations and how they can increase their security in preparation for the season. Below are excerpts, read the full article here.

“Once again, the holiday season is upon us, and for retailers, especially, that means an especially busy time. Online sales, for example, are expected to jump 14% to 18% this year compared to 2018, according to the 2019 Deloitte holiday retail survey.”   

“The holiday season is also a time for retailers to be proactive about security. Among the highest risk factors, according to Muktar Kelati, director of intelligence operations for the Retail & Hospitality ISAC (RH-ISAC), are employee negligence or poor security hygiene, unpatched vulnerable systems, misconfiguration or poor security of publicly accessible online resources, and older point-of-sale (POS) systems.

“’The industry has realized that security is a broad problem that requires a multifaceted approach from not only the retail sector, but the financial sector that issues and manages the payment infrastructure, as well as supply chain partners, third-party service providers, the major technology players and the public sector,’ Kelati says.”

RH-ISAC will be sharing tips throughout the holiday season in a holiday guidance blog series. Below are holiday guidance blogs already posted. Visit the RH-ISAC blog for more industry relevant blogs.

Holiday Guidance Blog Series:

  1. Top 5 Holiday Shopping Season Threats for Retail and Hospitality
  2. 8 Tips for the Holiday Season
  3. Biggest Holiday Risk Factors
  4. Positive Trends in Retail and Hospitality Cybersecurity

More Recent Blog Posts