With 86% of UK adults using a form of online or remote banking and high street banks closing in record numbers, banking websites have become an integral part of our daily lives. They have changed how we manage our money, allowing us to send and receive money from anywhere in the world, open or close accounts at the click of a button (or tap or a screen), and avoid queuing in physical banks. They...

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned the public to be cautious if contacted by people claiming to be... FTC staff. In a warning published on its website, the FTC said that scammers were using its employees' real names to steal money from consumers. A typical ruse will see the bogus FTC staffer advising someone to wire or...

In 2024, transformation is reshaping industries, and the financial sector stands at a crucial juncture. The Softcat Business Tech Priorities Report, a comprehensive survey encompassing over 4,000 customers across various sectors, sheds light on this transformation. Significantly, cybersecurity has emerged as the paramount concern for financial...

Over the years, PayPal has earned a reputation for being a secure and easy way to send and receive money. However, no payment system is entirely immune to scams, and cybercriminals often exploit these platforms due to their widespread popularity and trust among users. PayPal is the most widely used online payment system in the US, making it a...

Individual users are often referred to as the weakest link in cybersecurity, as human error is a major contributor to security incidents of all kinds. However, employees can also be a significant asset when adequately trained in cybersecurity hygiene and best practices. The dangers of cyber threats in the retail sector are numerous and costly,...

As the holiday shopping season kicks in, many are eager to secure early bird discounts and offers, preparing for the festive season. The convenience and speed of mobile devices has led to a growing number of individuals opting for mobile payments, whether conducted online or through contactless systems. The global mobile payment revenue is expected...

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently published important cybersecurity guidance to help protect retailers, which comes right as the holiday shopping season is in full swing. Retail organizations are no strangers to cyber attacks. In fact, some recent large-scale retail industry cyber attacks have included popular brands such as Guess,...

If you were to take a look at the cybersecurity news cycle, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s only large enterprises with expansive customer bases and budgets that are the most vulnerable to attacks. But that’s not entirely true. Even if it’s at a much smaller scale, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) still have stores of sensitive...

To distinguish the size of merchant companies and appropriately determine the level of testing required, the founding credit card companies created four different brackets ranging from Tier 1 to 4. Each tier is based on the number of transactions processed per year by the merchant and also dictates the testing a merchant must undertake. While...

The retail industry saw more than its fair share of data breaches in 2017, with security incidents impacting at American supermarket chain Whole Foods Market and clothing companies Brooks Brothers, The Buckle, and Forever 21, to name a few. At least some of those events likely resulted from retailers' poor data breach preparation. Consider the fact...

Despite retailers’ continuous improvement in compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards, four out of five companies are still failing at interim assessments, according to Verizon’s latest report. The report highlights that the overall state of compliance grew significantly in 2014, with 20 percent of organizations...