Retailers are getting better at vetting the companies they work with when it comes to protecting their data. While this is important they must remember not to take their eye off the ball close to home.

Last year retailers reported to Retail Week that IT security was still one of the areas where they were spending money, but according to Deloitte even these budgets are now being squeezed.

Among the information Deloitte put out as part of its Consumer Business Security Survey was that 64 per cent of retailers have already experienced cuts to their security projects as a result of the economic downturn. And 36 per cent expect budget cuts in 2009.

Perhaps this isn’t surprising given that less than half have a formally defined information security strategy. But whether you have money to burn on the latest fancy security technology or not, having no strategy in place seems careless to say the least.

Even if retailers are trying to cut corners when it comes to maximising their own data protection, they have finally woken up to the problem of third parties.

Almost all retailers – 91 per cent in the survey – work with third parties who access to some level of customer data. And nearly all of these retailers carry out security assessments when they start working with the third party to check that they won’t become a weak spot in the retailer’s defences.

And further to this, 65 per cent keep checking their partners and suppliers to make sure that their security systems are up to scratch.

The question for retailers is, are you able to properly assess how well third parties look after your data, if you are cutting corners when it comes to looking after it yourself?

Topics