In today’s digital age, grocery stores — and most all retail stores for that matter — are increasingly reliant on technology to manage inventory, process transactions, and ensure smooth operations.
However, with this reliance comes the ever-growing threat of cyberattacks or malfunctions. And nowhere is this more evident than in the recent CrowdStrike cyber event, where the vulnerabilities that exist within even the most secure systems were exposed.
The trickle-down effect was pure chaos.
The global outage crashed millions of systems around the world — this includes grocery stores, where the “blue-screen of death” at many retailer self-checkout kiosks forced consumers to use only cash and caused lines for human-run registers to grow and grow.
In turn, stores were forced to make a major decision — go cash or close the store and go home until the systems were back up and running again.
For grocery stores, the potential fallout from a major cyber event, or even a targeted cyber-attack — can be devastating, ranging from operational disruptions to loss of customer trust.
TECH OUTAGE: Self service machines across Woolworths supermarkets are not operational. Blue screen of death. #crowdstrike pic.twitter.com/RS42zcEQi2
— Archie Staines (@archiestaines9) July 19, 2024
So, how can a grocery store be better prepared? Here’s how:
It doesn’t matter if you’re a mom & pop store or a small-to-mid-sized grocer — no one should go it alone in today’s digital world.
Having a retail tech support partner that you can rely on for anything and everything related to cybersecurity is a good first move to shore up your defenses. Here’s why:
And the best part about having a retail tech support team on your side is that the latest advancements in cybersecurity tech are just a phone call away.
Wouldn’t it be nice when a cyber event like CrowdStrike happens again, because it will, for you to have a solid first line of defense?
A proactive cyber defense strategy can minimize risk and protect your organization against ransomware, phishing, zero-day threats, targeted attacks and more.
One of the top IT Cybersecurity solutions for grocers comes from ESET — a massive global digital security company that helps protect hundreds of thousands of companies and millions of customers worldwide.
STCR recommends the ESET PROTECT Platform to all of our retail partners for not only threat prevention, but also detection and response. In their latest blog post, the ESET team discusses the importance of building a cyber-resilience plan.
“A detailed and encompassing cyber-resilience plan can help get your business back up and running quickly. Still, in exceptional circumstances like this, it may not mean your business becomes operational due to others that your business relies on not being as prepared or quick to deploy necessary resources. No company can anticipate all scenarios and completely eliminate the risk of business operational disruption.“
So, as the recent CrowdStrike event has shown, cyber events can be a significant and growing threat to businesses of all kinds, including grocery stores.
By taking proactive measures to strengthen your defenses via a solid support team and top notch tech, grocery stores can better navigate the challenges posed by major cyber events.
Preparing today will help ensure that your store is ready to face the next cyber threat with confidence and resilience.
