Data Security

E-commerce sales are set to hit new records with shoppers turning to mobile devices and the web to make their purchases. According to Forrester, online spending is expected to jump 11 percent year-over-year. Forrester anticipates that U.S. online holiday sales will exceed $95 billion. As retailers focus on capturing every sale they can between Thanksgiving…

This holiday shopping season, retailers and customers alike may think they’re safe from cybercriminals because they’ve beefed up their antivirus and firewalls. After all, hardware and software is synonymous with security, isn’t it? While it’s a small step in the right direction, when it comes to ensuring the security of your company and your customers,…

Target agreed to a $39 million settlement with several U.S. banks on Wednesday over a data breach that affected roughly 40 million customers. The banks lost millions when they were forced to reimburse customers who lost money in the massive 2013 hack of Target's database. The banks, which service MasterCard, filed a class-action lawsuit against…

The Home Depot has reached a contingent settlement with MasterCard over the home improvement giant's massive 2014 data breach. The deal was disclosed Nov. 30 in court filings in federal court in Atlanta. Banks have reached out to see if their members are interested in participating in the settlement.

Neiman Marcus customers had to work a little harder to cash in on its big discounts over the long Thanksgiving Day-Black Friday shopping weekend. Outages hit the retailer Friday and Saturday as it offered $50 off $200 and an extra 33 percent off. And it was apologizing big time on social media and extending its…

Cyber Monday, the online version of Black Friday, isn't immune to traffic jams of shoppers rushing to take advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales. Some of the most popular websites experienced an overload on Monday, similar to a crowd pushing its way into an already packed brick-and-mortar store. Shoppers were for a period of time unable to…

Holiday sales traditionally constitute a huge portion of retailers’ annual revenue, and there’s a lot at stake in the upcoming season. According to PwC, web sales for the overall retail sector will see a mid- to high-teens percentage increase over last year, with the leading retailers poised for a 40 percent to 50 percent increase.…

Neiman Marcus shoppers hoping to scoop up Black Friday deals were instead greeted with an error message. According to Catchpoint Systems, which monitors retailers' web performance, the luxury brand's homepage has been mostly unavailable since 8 a.m. ET. It represents the first significant outage of the day, and follows a smooth day of web performance on Thanksgiving,…

Wal-Mart’s website malfunctioned during the Thanksgiving shopping rush Thursday morning, throwing a wrench in some shoppers’ plans to avoid long lines by grabbing deals online. For the first time, the world’s biggest retailer offered most of its Black Friday “doorbusters” on its website hours before they were available inside its U.S. stores. The discounts, which were…

As consumers lead increasingly connected lives, more of their personal information is being transmitted through online channels than ever before. In an increasingly competitive ecosystem, brands are collecting consumer data dubiously to better inform marketing efforts and personalize campaigns. Unfortunately, this behavior often puts both brands and consumers at risk. Retail, specifically, is at such…