Infoblox Inc., the leader in Secure Cloud-Managed Network Services, announced new research revealing how retailers across the globe invest more in cybersecurity during the holiday period than at any other time of the year due to a seasonal increase in social engineering attacks. The research also found that threats like unpatched security vulnerabilities, insecure IoT devices, and the online consumers themselves are a risk to retailers this time of year.

The report titled, 'Retail Risks Revealed: Cybersecurity Threats at All Time High During the Holidays' details the findings from a survey 3,000 consumers and retail IT professionals in the UK, Germany, Netherlands and the U.S. on their experiences and attitudes towards online data privacy and security while shopping online during the holidays.

Sixty two percent of UK and German retailers claim to increase cybersecurity measures during the holiday season, with a third in each region citing a rise in social engineering attacks (35 percent in U.S., 34 percent in UK, 30 percent in Germany), aside from the Netherlands where social engineering attacks dominated for just over a quarter of businesses – though this was still the most common attack vector. Other kinds of attacks include:

Social media scams – 19 percent in U.S., 15 percent in UK, 14 percent in the Netherlands, 12 percent in Germany

DDoS attacks – 20 percent in the Netherlands, 17 percent in Germany, 12 percent in UK, 7 percent in U.S.

Ransomware – 12 percent in U.S., 11 percent in Germany, 10 percent in UK, 9 percent in the Netherlands

44 percent of U.S.-based IT decision makers in retail say implementing new technology makes them more concerned, yet 44 percent of retailers plan to implement IoT devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home in stores within the next 12 months. In the UK, artificial intelligence (43%) leads as the technology most likely to be implemented within the next year, followed by IoT devices (35%), fourth screen technology (24%), Omni channel technology (23%), and augmented reality (17%). Similar to the US, the majority of IT decision makers in the UK say they're concerned about new technologies, a stark contrast from the Netherlands where only 20 percent are concerned.

While the majority of global consumers shop online to some degree,17 percent of shoppers do nothing to protect their data while shopping online. The UK is the most complacent with just one in five taking no proactive action to protect their data. On the other hand, German consumers are more cautious when shopping online - with more than half of (53%) consumers only shopping on secured WiFi networks, and 62 percent of companies reporting implementing extra protection for consumers.

"The level of online shopping activity always increases significantly during the holiday season and can provide rich pickings for the opportunistic cyber-criminal, so it's no coincidence that more than half of retailers will increase their cybersecurity spending during their most prosperous and dangerous time of year," said Victor Danevich, CTO of Systems Engineering at Infoblox. "It's critical that enterprises take measures to get additional network visibility, so they can respond quickly to potential cyber incidents which could result in lost revenue and brand damage."

In order to prevent unwanted network activity and vulnerabilities during peak online shopping seasons, retailers need to gain complete visibility into their network. Intelligent DNS security solutions can help detect vulnerabilities by identifying unusual and potentially malicious network activity and provide deeper control at the infrastructure level. To stop sophisticated attacks like phishing, social media scams and social engineering, retailers need network monitoring solutions that leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify malicious actors and potential cyber-attacks. 

Infoblox has been providing the next level networking capabilities needed for retailers to combat malicious activity. Visit the retail customers page to see how retailers like Walmart, eBay and Best Buy leverage network security and threat intelligence from Infoblox.