Retailers' Interest in Managed Security Services Rises

There's nothing like a few highly publicized security breaches that affect millions of people to drum up interest in IT security. With breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus continuing to make headlines, channel companies that specialize in providing IT security in the retail space are seeing a surge of interest in their services. A survey of 100 U.S. small and midsize retailers finds that more than one in five are not compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). An additional 14 percent don't know if they are PCI-compliant or not, according to the study, conducted by GMI, a unit of Lightspeed Research, on behalf of firewall specialist Fortinet. Most significantly from a channel perspective, only 18 percent currently rely on a managed security service provider (MSSP), but 29 percent of them say they are thinking about making that shift. For MSSPs, an increase in the available retail market space for their services by almost 30 percent would represent a major new opportunity in 2014. Channel Insider examines key findings from the study.