A Jan. 30 data breach linked to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder exposed more than 440 million records, but none apparently contained customers’ payment information or privileged information about employees. This follows recent data breach events at Visa and children’s clothing retailer Hanna Andersson.
As an industry, retail’s reputation for providing software security has taken some hits. The top 15 data breaches of the current century include Target in 2013, with account information on an estimated 110 million customers compromised; TJX in 2006, with 94 million credit cards exposed; and Home Depot in September 2014, with about 56 million customer credit/debit cards compromised. Here is a look at how retailers can beef up their security to ensure that data breaches are a thing of the past.