The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned the public to be cautious if contacted by people claiming to be... FTC staff. In a warning published on its website , the FTC said that scammers were using its employees' real names to steal money from consumers. A typical ruse will see the bogus FTC staffer advising someone to wire or transfer money to "protect" it, send a victim to a...

In 2024, transformation is reshaping industries, and the financial sector stands at a crucial juncture. The Softcat Business Tech Priorities Report , a comprehensive survey encompassing over 4,000 customers across various sectors, sheds light on this transformation. Significantly, cybersecurity has emerged as the paramount concern for financial institutions for the second consecutive year. This...

Over the years, PayPal has earned a reputation for being a secure and easy way to send and receive money. However, no payment system is entirely immune to scams , and cybercriminals often exploit these platforms due to their widespread popularity and trust among users. PayPal is the most widely used online payment system in the US, making it a compelling target for scammers looking to capitalize...

Individual users are often referred to as the weakest link in cybersecurity, as human error is a major contributor to security incidents of all kinds. However, employees can also be a significant asset when adequately trained in cybersecurity hygiene and best practices. The dangers of cyber threats in the retail sector are numerous and costly, ranging from the theft of sensitive employee...

As the holiday shopping season kicks in, many are eager to secure early bird discounts and offers, preparing for the festive season. The convenience and speed of mobile devices has led to a growing number of individuals opting for mobile payments, whether conducted online or through contactless systems. The global mobile payment revenue is expected to reach $12.06 trillion by 2027 , and smartphone...

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently published important cybersecurity guidance to help protect retailers, which comes right as the holiday shopping season is in full swing. Retail organizations are no strangers to cyber attacks. In fact, some recent large-scale retail industry cyber attacks have included popular brands such as Guess, Under Armour, CVS Health, Home Depot, and Target...

If you were to take a look at the cybersecurity news cycle, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s only large enterprises with expansive customer bases and budgets that are the most vulnerable to attacks. But that’s not entirely true. Even if it’s at a much smaller scale, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) still have stores of sensitive information that’s appealing to bad actors — and...

To distinguish the size of merchant companies and appropriately determine the level of testing required, the founding credit card companies created four different brackets ranging from Tier 1 to 4. Each tier is based on the number of transactions processed per year by the merchant and also dictates the testing a merchant must undertake. While transactions are the primary determiner, a merchant can...

The retail industry saw more than its fair share of data breaches in 2017, with security incidents impacting at American supermarket chain Whole Foods Market and clothing companies Brooks Brothers , The Buckle , and Forever 21 , to name a few. At least some of those events likely resulted from retailers' poor data breach preparation. Consider the fact that just 28 percent of IT security...

Tripwire studied confidence vs. knowledge of financial services IT security pros on seven key security controls necessary to detect a data breach. For many controls IT pros believed they had the information necessary to detect a breach quickly but provided contradictory information about the specific data.

Despite retailers’ continuous improvement in compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards, four out of five companies are still failing at interim assessments, according to Verizon’s latest report . The report highlights that the overall state of compliance grew significantly in 2014, with 20 percent of organizations achieving full compliance – up from 11 percent in 2013, and...