Stay secure; become cyber agile
Retailers are all too aware that their continued success is utterly dependent on their systems remaining operational, particularly when running on tight margins to maximise competitiveness.
Any outage in this scenario can significantly impact service, customer opinion, industry reputation and revenue. Recent cyber attacks that crippled core business-critical services of prominent high-street retailers have underlined the high cost of vulnerability.
The natural response is to turn to security for protection, centred on defending the network as the lifeblood that keeps retail flowing.
A cyber-agile business invests in its people, adopts advanced security tools and streamlines its processes. It thrives by collaborating with trusted partners to innovate boldly and stay ahead of cyber threats.
In this mindset, retailers recognise attacks as a fact of life, so they equip themselves to contain and resolve them quickly to minimise their impact.
What if your security could do more, be more and help you achieve more – if you turned it into a strategic advantage by embracing a cyber agility approach?
Embed security from inception
Cyber agility actively campaigns against seeing security as an afterthought, bolted on partway through or even after the build. It sees the pitfalls of this clearly, understanding that bolting on security is complex, invasive and awkward. Bolting on delivers sub-par user experiences, costs far more than embedding security from the start and slows projects down. Often, it involves adding extra steps into processes, increasing friction in the digital user experiences of staff, suppliers and end customers.
“The cycle of doing cool things and only then adding on security costs retailers opportunities, efficiency and hard cash.”
Lee Stephens, Director of Security Advisory Services, BT
Timing
Security is planned and embedded from the start.
Seamless integration
Security fits naturally into systems and workflows.
Cost-efficient
Early planning avoids expensive fixes later.
Faster projects
Early incorporation means quicker delivery
Smooth user experience
No added friction. Just secure, intuitive interactions.
Centre defences on securing your network
It’s a balance. Customers, employees, third parties and supply and distribution chains need easy, flexible access to your relevant omnichannel, warehouse and store systems.
But make your network and systems too open and trusting, and bad actors can infiltrate. Yet smother them in layers of security, and business activity slows and user experience suffers.
The answer is to implement identity management and the principle of least privilege at every access point across your network and infrastructure, from your endpoints to your activity in the cloud and across every form of connectivity in between. Check who people are, and only give them access to what they need for that specific task. System doors open instantly for legitimate requests, while bad actors are left knocking for entry.
Navigate hyperscaler use carefully
As retailers increasingly call on providers of large-scale, high-performance cloud services known as hyperscalers to support data-heavy, real-time operations and enable high-speed connectivity across their retail locations, the security risks must be considered carefully.
In a hyperscaler’s public and shared environment, your data is not only closer to ‘outsiders’, but the complexity of accurately configuring the multitude of switches and controls within each hyperscaler’s security system makes it very easy to unintentionally leave cloud access points vulnerable. Since specialised hyperscaler security expertise can be difficult to maintain internally, we’ve seen a distinct rise in demand for our services in this field.
Making retail happen depends on robust connectivity that allows data to fly where needed to power your operational world. However, you must strictly control the who, how and when of accessing that data.
Squeeze extra business value from security
Central to boosting value is using your secure IT ecosystem’s data sets and insights to fuel improvements in retail performance.
What if monitoring secure file transfer logs and endpoints could highlight supply chain delays impacting store replenishment or flag anomalies in click-and-collect stock flows? What if security-driven end-to-end visibility could streamline compliance with PCI DSS, reduce the time spent auditing transactions and protect customer data more efficiently?
Or how about using network performance and intrusion detection to optimise digital signage, POS systems and e-commerce traffic, scaling infrastructure during peak trading periods? And this is just a taste of cyber agility value in the retail space.
The future of retail is dependent on a secure network
At BT, we have a long track record of making all this happen for retail organisations every day.
Our experts deliver security solutions that make your business go faster and say yes to your outcomes. We put our arms around your operations, using a skilled blend of people, processes and technology to build defences and activate value. And we break down what’s involved into precise detail so you understand every step of the journey.
Cyber agility goes beyond efficiently repelling threats; it uses security to power innovation, optimisation and growth.
Why does cyber agility matter?
Cyber agility refers to moving quickly and easily to anticipate and respond to cyber risk. This is vital to continue operating optimally in a world of growing cyber threats.
What is our cyber agility benchmarking tool?
It’s an online questionnaire-based tool that assesses your business on the six dimensions of cyber agility. It compares your scores with high-performing companies in your sector to reveal where you could improve.
Awareness
Compliance
Connectivity
Strategy
Skills
Innovation
Why does cyber agility matter?
Cyber agility refers to moving quickly and easily to anticipate and respond to cyber risk. This is vital to continue operating optimally in a world of growing cyber threats.
What is our cyber agility benchmarking tool?
It’s an online questionnaire-based tool that assesses your business on the six dimensions of cyber agility. It compares your scores with high-performing companies in your sector to reveal where you could improve
© BT 2025
© BT 2025