Apparently I got out of New York just in time. The entire eastern seaboard got “Snowmageddon II, the Blanketing” a few hours after I left. Despite a four-legged return flight, I did actually make it back to Phoenix. And Phoenix was just about the only place in the US where it was not snowing, as I heard there was snow in 48 states simultaneously.

I was in NYC for the National Retail Federation’s 100th anniversary show. It was my first. I was happy to be invited, as my wife and her family have been in retail for decades, and I was eager to speak at a retail show. And this was the retail show. I have listened to my family about retail security for 20 years, and it used to be that their only security challenge was shrinkage. Now they face just about every security problem imaginable, as they leverage technology in every facet of operations. Supply chain, RFID, POS, BI systems, CRM, inventory management, and web interfaces are all at risk.

On the panel were Robert McMillion of RSA and Peter Engert of Rooms to Go. We were worried about filling an hour and a half slot, and doubly anxious about whether anyone would show up to talk about security on a Sunday morning. But the turnout was excellent, with a little over 150 people, and we ended up running long. Peter provided a pragmatic view of security challenges in retail, and Robert provided a survey of security technologies retail merchants should consider. It was no surprise that most of the questions from the audience were on tokenization and removal of credit cards. I get the feeling that every merchant who can get rid of credit cards – those who have tied the credit card numbers to their database primary keys – will explore tokenization.

Oddly enough, I ended up talking with tons of people at the hotel and its bar, more than I did at the conference itself. People were happy to be there. I guess they they were there for the entire week of the show, and very chatty. Lots of marketing people interested in talking about security, which surprised me. And they had heard about tokenization and wanted to know more. My prodding questions about POS and card swipe readers – basically: when will you upgrade them so they are actually secure – fell on deaf ears. Win some, lose some, but I think it’s healthy that data security is a topic of interest in the retail space.

One last note: as you can probably tell, the number of blog entries is down this week. That’s because we are working on the Cloud Security Alliance Training Course. And fitting both the stuff you need to know and the stuff you need to pass the certification test into one day is quite a challenge. Like all things Securosis, we are applying our transparent research model to this effort as well! So we ask that you please provide feedback or ask questions about any content that does not make sense. I advise against asking for answers to the certification test – Rich will give you some. The wrong ones, but you’ll get them. Regardless, we’ll post the outlines over the next few days. Check it out!

On to the Summary:

Webcasts, Podcasts, Outside Writing, and Conferences

Favorite Securosis Posts

Other Securosis Posts

Favorite Outside Posts

Project Quant Posts

Research Reports and Presentations

Top News and Posts

Blog Comment of the Week

Remember, for every comment selected, Securosis makes a $25 donation to Hackers for Charity. This week’s best comment goes to Andre Gironda, in response to What Do You Want to See in the First Cloud Security Alliance Training Course?

HR/Legal issues such as forensics/e-discovery, data retention, rotation/separation of duties, data and system administrator views/control, employee/contractor termination, rotation/control of primary/admin-level authn/keys/passwords, etc.

Share: