Building a Retail Cyber Resilience Playbook for Holiday 2025

This guide outlines a comprehensive playbook aimed at enhancing cyber resilience for retailers during the holiday season of 2025. The document identifies the evolving threat landscape that retailers face, emphasizing the need for proactive measures as cybercriminals increasingly target this peak shopping period. Key threats include BNPL fraud, fake customer service bots, ransomware, and phishing attacks aimed at seasonal employees, each exploiting different vulnerabilities. The playbook details core elements necessary for effective preparation and response, including strengthening identity verification systems, implementing Zero Trust access and multi-factor authentication, employee awareness training, threat monitoring, and managing vendor risks. The necessity for advance preparation is highlighted, as the holiday rush amplifies risks, potentially leading to significant losses if not addressed in time. Looking ahead, the playbook encourages retailers to build layered defenses to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated attacks anticipated in the future.