The real trend of Christmas is cyber security

The fashion industry, amidst its digital transformation and online shopping boom, faces unprecedented challenges in cybersecurity. The 2023 holiday season brings both opportunities and risks as the year-end shopping rush becomes a tempting target for hackers and cybercriminals. While the industry swiftly adapts to digital advancements, prioritizing cybersecurity is imperative to protect brand reputation, intellectual property, and customer data. The shift to the online realm is evident; in 2021, 43% of customers who never shopped for clothing online embraced e-commerce. However, the digital boom brings an increased threat from cybercriminals. In 2021, businesses across sectors experienced over 50% more cyberattack attempts each week, a trend that continues to grow. Cyberattacks not only increase in frequency but also in sophistication, evolving techniques to outpace corporate defenses. The fashion industry, with high-value transactions, becomes a prime target despite the existence of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adding an extra layer of importance to data protection.

The fashion industry faces unique challenges that demand tailored cybersecurity solutions. Direct-to-consumer brands and multi-brand retailers store vast amounts of personal data, including purchase history, buying behaviors, body scans, and sizing information, alongside phone numbers, addresses, and personal and tax data. Theft of such sensitive information can have catastrophic consequences for both customers and brands, leading to a loss of consumer trust after a cyberattack. Small businesses, in particular, are vulnerable, with 60% facing closure within six months after a cyberattack, according to The Interline. A specific cybersecurity challenge in the fashion world is the phenomenon of limited editions, creating a pressing issue for the industry.

Fashion brands and retailers are vulnerable to various attack vectors, including eCommerce backends, collaboration tools with suppliers, and IoT devices in stores. The belief that cybersecurity is a set-and-forget solution is a common misconception, especially among non-expert managers. Cybersecurity requires a dedicated, continuously active team conducting regular tests, attack simulations, and penetration tests to keep up with evolving hacker tactics. This constant evolution demands a dedicated team and regular evaluations of cybersecurity policies and solutions, given the frequent and seasonless nature of product launches in the fashion industry.

As the holiday season approaches, the year-end shopping rush creates ideal conditions for cyber attackers. A report by S-RM cited in a recent BoF article indicates an 11% growth in the average cost of an incident in 2023 compared to the previous year, reaching around $1.7 million. Any brand or retailer that manages large customer databases and sensitive information is a very attractive target for a data heist. And indeed, again according to BoF's Marc Bain, the retail sector allocates the largest share of IT budgets to cybersecurity. However, the total investment in the sector however only indicates the percentage of the budget that is invested and does not quantify the actual investment. In other words: retail is the sector that invests the most in proportional terms, but many companies spend higher amounts that correspond to smaller fractions of their budgets. In short, the data say that prudence is really never enough. 

Added to this discourse is the increase in criticality brought about by the advent of generative artificial intelligence, which has given both attackers and defenders an extra weapon, so to speak. While AI facilitates more sophisticated attacks, it also gives security teams the ability to streamline processes and quickly detect threats by recognizing recurring patterns by analyzing large amounts of data. According to experts, the golden rule for ensuring cyber security lies in collaborating with industry peers to share information on emerging threats and attack patterns. Since efficiency in these cases is essential it will also serve to develop a comprehensive incident response plan to minimize downtime and evaluate and adapt cybersecurity policies and solutions to adapt to the changing digital landscape.