Cybersecurity Breach at Neiman Marcus Will Test Consumers’ Retail Confidence Ahead of the Busy Festive Period, Warns PCI Pal

The recent data breach, amidst a year of ongoing data breaches, is a warning signal to retailers and consumers as they head into the holiday season

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With news reports suggesting the retailer Neiman Marcus has been the subject of a cybersecurity breach, PCI Pal® (LON: PCIP) – the global cloud provider of secure payment solutions for business communications – is urging firms to step-up protection of sensitive payment card data with de-scoping payment security technologies to put a stop to hackers accessing sensitive financial information.

Neiman Marcus Group confirmed it has notified approximately 4.6 million online customers that personal information such as name, contact information and credit card numbers may have been accessed in a hack.

A 2020 consumer survey from PCI Pal found that a significant 70% of U.S. respondents would stop shopping for a few months or indefinitely if a store suffered a data breach. This demonstrates the potential damage a breach of this nature can have not only to reputation but potential future revenues and must be taken seriously as online and offline retailers prepare for the busy November and December shopping periods.

Geoff Forsyth, Chief Information Security Officer of PCI Pal said, “Retailers are still finding their feet following the pandemic and breaches like this have the ability to really knock consumer confidence. Our research has shown that many consumers will tend to avoid a retailer that has suffered a cybersecurity breach.

“It’s an extremely hard lesson for merchants to learn from, however using descoping technologies as part of the payment process will help retailers in the long-run. By avoiding storing customers’ payment card data on internal systems in the first place, it removes the associated risks of such data falling into the wrong hands should a data breach occur.”

PCI Pal secures payments via business communications channels for some of the largest companies in a range of markets, including retail, logistics, financial services, public sector and utilities.

For more information on PCI Pal visit www.pcipal.com or follow PCI Pal on Twitter.

About PCI Pal

PCI Pal (LON: PCIP) is a leading provider of SaaS solutions that empower companies to take payments securely, adhere to strict industry governance, and remove their business from the significant risks posed by non-compliance and data loss.

Its mission is to safeguard reputation and trust by providing customers with secure payment solutions for any business communications environment including voice, chat, social, email, and contact centre.

PCI Pal is integrated to, and resold by, some of the worlds' leading business communications vendors, as well as major payment service providers.

The entirety of the product-base is available from its global cloud platform hosted in Amazon Web Services ("AWS"), with regional instances across EMEA, North America, and ANZ. PCI Pal products can be used by any size organization globally, and it is proud to work with some of the largest and most respected brands in the world.

For more information visit www.pcipal.com or follow the team on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pci-pal/