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This is the first in a series of articles, featuring exclusive insight from Richard Meeus, EMEA director of security technology and strategy at Akamai and Stephen Faulkner, chief technologist for security at CDW UK.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s no time in the retail calendar as vital as the Golden Quarter. According to Adobe data, UK consumers spent an eye-watering \u00a31.12 billion on Black Friday alone in 2024. Needless to say, getting your strategy in place for another record-breaking year is paramount. However, after a tumultuous year for retail security, many will be anxious about the effect that cyber criminals could have on their profitability in this essential time.<\/p>\n As the chaos of H1 2025 taught us, cybercriminals are circling and they are indeed smarter, faster, and more ruthless than ever. The attacks that rocked several major retailers this spring proved two things at once. The first is that artificial intelligence is giving criminals an edge that most businesses are still unprepared for. The second may come as a surprise; some of the most devastating breaches can start with the simplest tricks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how much you talk about AI and how that\u2019s going to facilitate fantastic new hacking techniques and tools,\u201d says Richard Meeus, EMEA director of security technology and strategy at Akamai. \u201cThe fact is, they rang up somebody, and they gave them a password. It\u2019s basic level stuff. Once you\u2019re in the network, everything changes.\u201d<\/p>\n Simple tricks, catastrophic fallout<\/strong><\/p>\n This simplicity is part of what makes today\u2019s retail cybercrime landscape so dangerous. Stephen Faulkner, chief technologist for security at CDW UK, points out that attacks are rarely a single event, but a\u00a0chain of carefully planned steps.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these events are a long time in the planning,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe identity-based breach, getting hold of that file or that compromised account, wasn\u2019t just as simple as calling up. They did the social engineering work beforehand, sometimes months in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n Once inside, attackers don\u2019t rush. They \u201clive off the land\u201d, blending in with normal users and using everyday tools like Secure Shell Protocol (SSH) and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) to quietly map out an organisation\u2019s systems. When the moment is right, the ransomware or data exfiltration follows, often long after defenders could have noticed.\u201cThe average dwell time used to be around nine months in Europe,\u201d notes Meeus. \u201cSo being inside for a month or two, like we saw this spring, is actually pretty efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter how much you talk about AI and new hacking techniques. The fact is, once bad actors are in the network, everything changes, and you won\u2019t know about it until it\u2019s too late. AI as a force multiplier for attackers<\/strong><\/p>\n The fear now is how AI accelerates this chain. Faulkner says criminals are using generative AI and deepfake technology to supercharge traditional social engineering.<\/p>\n \u201cThey can scrape data and correlate it from LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, everything, and get really distinct messaging,\u201d he says. \u201cThey can even clone a voice in minutes. It used to take hours to make a convincing fake. Now, with just minutes of someone\u2019s voice, you can mimic them perfectly. That makes it so much easier to call a help desk, pretend to be an employee, and get in.\u201d<\/p>\n Meeus agrees, but stresses that AI hasn\u2019t rewritten the rules, it\u2019s simply drastically lowered the barrier to entry. \u201cThere\u2019s a democratisation of attacks,\u201d he says. \u201cThe attacks we already know about are now being done by more people, because they can leverage AI to do the heavy lifting.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, AI may not create entirely new threats, but it makes old ones harder to spot and more frequent. And for retailers, peak season is when those threats are most likely to strike.<\/p>\n The psychology of cybercrime<\/strong><\/p>\n If today\u2019s cybercrime is efficient, persistent, and AI-assisted, it is also deeply psychological. \u201cAttackers are psychologists,\u201d says Faulkner. \u201cThey know when to hit you and how. Look at the retail attacks over Easter. They came when offices were empty, when retailers were trying to make the most of the holiday trade. Attackers know you\u2019re stretched, they know when your guard is down.\u201d<\/p>\n This psychological element extends to targeting staff. Retail is full of employees\u00a0 who post proudly about their new role online. Meeus warns this information is exactly what attackers look for.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll go on LinkedIn, see someone new, and immediately try to exploit them,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Hi, this is Jeff from the CFO\u2019s office, we just need your bank details\u2026\u2019 The naivety is exploited straight away. Some retailers now run security awareness sessions on day one, before an email account is even issued.\u201d<\/p>\n Prevention is still better than cure<\/strong><\/p>\n If this all sounds unnervingly hard to stop, that\u2019s because it is. But both experts stress that the fundamentals still matter most. Strong authentication, secure coding, data encryption, network segmentation and, crucially, staff education remain the foundations of protection.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just focus on AI-driven anomalies,\u201d says Faulkner. \u201cIf the basics aren\u2019t right, attackers will still get in.\u201d<\/p>\n Meeus echoes the point: \u201cDon\u2019t believe the AI hype. Yes, attackers are using it. Yes, defenders can use it. But a huge number of breaches still come down to someone handing out a password.\u201d<\/p>\n Why peak season is the perfect storm<\/strong><\/p>\n The spring breaches were devastating because of their timing, but experts warn the trading period during the Holidays is an even bigger target. Retailers are more reliant on digital channels than ever, their staff are stretched thin, and customer impatience is at its peak.<\/p>\n As Faulkner puts it: \u201cCybercrime has become an industry in its own right. They apply business logic. They know when you\u2019re busiest and most vulnerable, and that\u2019s when they\u2019ll come.\u201d<\/p>\n For retailers, the uncomfortable truth is that\u00a0peak season is also peak vulnerability. And if AI has given attackers a louder, faster, more convincing voice, retailers cannot afford to treat security as an afterthought.<\/p>\n As we head into this most critical trading window, the message is a clear one. AI-driven threats are rising, and peak season is the perfect storm. But awareness is only the first step. In the second part of this series, we\u2019ll explore how to overcome these challenges and protect your business from attack, with practical strategies to keep both profits and customers safe.<\/p>\n About CDW Founded in 1984, CDW is a leading multi-brand technology solutions provider to business, government, education, and healthcare customers in the United Kingdom, and more than 170 countries across the globe. With more than 13,000 global coworkers \u2013 including 1,600 in the UK \u2013 we help you achieve your goals by delivering integrated technology solutions and services that maximise your investment.<\/p>\n About\u00a0Akamai Akamai is the cybersecurity and cloud computing company that powers and protects business online. Our market-leading security solutions, superior threat intelligence, and global operations team provide defense in depth to safeguard enterprise data and applications everywhere. Akamai\u2019s full-stack cloud computing solutions deliver performance and affordability on the world\u2019s most distributed platform. Global enterprises trust Akamai to provide the industry-leading reliability, scale, and expertise they need to grow their business with confidence.<\/p>\n To ensure your business is ready for anything and well protected,\u00a0Click Here\u00a0to book a meeting with a cyber security expert, or visit\u00a0<\/em>uk.cdw.com<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>akamai.com<\/em><\/p>\n <\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/richardmeeus_202007101629-300x300.jpg\")
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<\/em>Richard Meeus, EMEA director of security technology & strategy, Akamai<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cdw-2023-rgb.png.webp\"\/)
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