Apparel Online India Magazine April 1st Issue 2019 | Page 10

WORLD WRAP
CYBERATTACKS: A GROWING
AND WORRYING MENACE
FOR THE FASHION RETAIL
INDUSTRY
Hackers, cyber criminals, cyberattacks
and cybersecurity are some of the
trending words that have been
buzzing the fashion industry for quite
some time now. Over the last decade,
cyberattacks have become more
frequent with customers’ personal
information being shared on online
fashion platforms, department stores
and international clothing brands.
This becomes an attraction for such
fraudsters. Apart from gaining access
to these personal data, the hackers
are also able to extract intellectual
property like design files, thus
forcing a company to take down its
website and lose sales. Also, taking
advantage of popular shopping period
like Black Friday, Golden Quarter
or post-Christmas January sales,
cybercriminals exploit this increased
traffic as cover for cyberattacks.
F
orter – an NYC-based company
that delivers real-time,
completely automated, fraud
prevention solutions for online
merchants – in its latest Fraud
Attack Index reported that the
attacks on online fashion shops
grew by 47 per cent in 2018.
Criminals are getting smarter and
are expecting companies to stay up
to date with their techniques. The
annual publication about trends in
online fraud attacks across different
industries alerts apparel and
accessories web shops to be more
vigilant, as the category is preferred
by fraudsters due to the ease with
which items can be resold and the
fact that attempts to buy in bulk
don’t look so suspicious. Fraudsters
and fraud attacks are dynamic
as always, as both industries and
attack methods see fluctuation and
expansion. Forbes’ Tom Groenfeldt
said, when writing about the report,
“As online commerce grows, online
fraud grows with it. Detection is not
enough, you have to do something
with the information.” To protect
the businesses and customers,
e-commerce professionals need to
stay on top of what has changed over
the last year.
After apparel and accessories,
jewellery and luxury goods have
also become an attractive bet
for fraudsters as thefts are more
lucrative than those in other sectors.
According to Forter, the category
has seen a 19 per cent increase in
online attacks year-on-year. As per
PricewaterhouseCoopers report,
the overall volume of detected
data breaches has grown at an
10 Apparel Online India | APRIL 1-15, 2019 | www.apparelresources.com
average of 66 per cent per year.
Most cyberattacks are committed
by organised crime networks.
E-commerce companies are
particularly at risk, because they
collect large amounts of data on
active customers, which has a higher
value than generic lists of credit card
details in the black market.
The disturbing trend
Several major fashion companies
have already been targeted. In 2014,
1.1 million credit card details were
exposed in a three-month attack on
Neiman Marcus, while Patagonia’s
footwear segment, clothing retailer
Bebe and discount department store
Kmart have suffered breaches in
recent years. Last year in April,
Hudson’s Bay Co, the group that
owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off
Fifth and Lord & Taylor in North
America, revealed that millions of its
American users’ personal data and
card information were compromised
due to a security breach. It was
later revealed by the cybersecurity
company Gemini Advisory LLC that
the credit and personal information
were stolen at Saks Off Fifth stores
and Lord & Taylor branches. Over
1,25,000 of the five million pledged
records were released for sale on the
‘dark web’.
In the same month, the retail group
Macy’s revealed that third parties
gained access to its Macys.com and
Bloomingdales.com accounts, using
valid usernames and passwords.
Without disclosing the exact figures,
it reported that ‘a small number’ of