18. Role of Cyber Security in Retail

As the digital retail landscape is rapidly evolving, retailers find themselves to be poorly equipped to handle increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. In the past, retailers gave little importance to IT security. IT security requirements were narrowly framed as ‘checkbox compliance’ given by payment card industry (PCI) for data protection specification and outsourced implementation to individual stores. As the consumer habits are changing, security also should be given a redefined focus. Compliance and privacy requirements are making data protection a very essential and critical task. The paper addresses gaps and solutions for cyber security in retail domain, especially in the backdrop of digitalization and omnichannel retailing.