Retailers, including Nike, band together to battle cybercrimes

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.oregonlive.com/playbooks-profits/index.ssf/2014/05/retailers_including_nike_band.html

Some of the nation's largest retailers are banding together in hopes of
protecting consumers' personal and financial information from hackers and
thieves.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, along with several top retailers
ranging from Gap Inc. to Walgreen Co., on Wednesday launched an
intelligence sharing center focused on the prevention of cybercrimes
against retailers.

Other participating retailers include Nike Inc., Lowes Cos. and Target
Corp., which was hit with a massive data breach at the height of last
year's holiday shopping season. The breach exposed flaws in Target's
security system and was a big factor in the abrupt departure of CEO Gregg
Steinhafel last week.

According to RILA, the center will allow retailers to share information
about data breaches and potential threats and also inform members of law
enforcement and industry analysts.

Sandy Kennedy, RILA's president, said crimes stemming from data breaches
are one of the biggest challenges facing retailers.

"It's really in everyone's interest, every retailer's interest, to protect
information against cybercrime," Kennedy said in an interview ahead of the
group's announcement. "Criminals are getting more and more sophisticated.
We're looking at how we can deal with this long term."

The incident at Target resulted in the theft of 40 million debit and credit
card numbers, as well as the personal information of up to 70 million
shoppers, and shined a spotlight on the growing problem of cybercrime.

While work on the cyber intelligence sharing center began in the wake of
the Target breach, and smaller breaches at Neiman Marcus and Michaels
Stores Inc., Kennedy said data crime was a big concern for the industry
well before those incidents occurred late last year.

"All of our members have been focused on this for a long time," Kennedy
said. "Our goal is to make sure the data is protected and that if criminals
do get into data, it's in a form that they can't use."

Paul Morrissey, U.S. Secret Service assistant director for investigations,
said in a statement, "The Secret Service actively supports information
sharing initiatives such as the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center,
announced today by RILA."

The Secret Service also says it continues its commitment to promote public
and private partnerships through its 33 nationwide Electric Crimes Task
Forces and two international crime task groups, which bring together over
6,100 private-sector partners, members of academia and local, state and
federal law enforcement.

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