A recently conducted survey showed that at least 19 percent of shoppers would be willing to leave a retail shop solely because they have been a victim of a cyber hack.
The survey which was named the 2016 KPMG Consumer Loss Barometer report actually surveyed about 448 people all from the United States, and it found out that of these people, 19 percent of them would leave a retailer because they had suffered a cyber attack. Another notable number is that of 33 percent of people who said that they would not shop at the retailer for close to three months because of fears of losing their private and sensitive information to the cyber attackers.
One appalling number that the survey showed was taken from the cybersecurity executives. Of the 100 cybersecurity executives that were surveyed, a massive 55 percent said that they had not invested in their cybersecurity over the past year and another 42 percent of the group also noted that they didn’t have a cybersecurity leader in place in their team who would be in charge of information security.
The responses given in the survey by the cybersecurity executives confirmed worries of many people who think that retailers have not been keeping up to par with other industries such as financial industry and the technology on cybersecurity issues and security.
Mark Larson, the KPMG business leader for consumer markets said that there was a lot at stake for the retailers out there. He also said that retailers who were not prioritizing their cybersecurity were taking a huge gamble that would not necessarily pay off.
Cybersecurity leader at KPMG, Tony Buffomante also noted that most retailers were not doing enough to keep their businesses from any cyber attacks or any cyber breaches. They were also not in a position to react to them in case they were attacked. He added that if they could keep their businesses safe from any cyber breaches they would be actually helping their businesses.
The survey results were posted on Tuesday and they clearly show that the retail and automotive industries were behind in appointing leaders who would help them with keeping their security and assessing cyberthreats and attacks. Finance industry and the tech industry were leading in the act. In the survey, cyberattacks were also noted to be rampant which showed that the retail industry had more malware attacks and internal botnet attacks than any other industry.