A new study from Thales has uncovered the worrying fact that two fifths of retailers have been hit by some form of breach that resulted in data loss over the past 12 months.

Internet Retailing reports that this examination of firms from around the world has shown that security remains an issue in a large proportion of organisations in this marketplace.

Furthermore, 80 per cent of respondents admitted that they would not be surprised if a breach occurs at some point further down the line, with over a third claiming to be especially vulnerable to existing threats.

The good news is that retailers are responding to this state of affairs by increasing investment in safe shopping online, with almost three quarters confirming that they would be spending more in this area.

The report’s authors pointed out that retailers are not only being spurred on by damning examples of breaches suffered by their rivals, but also as a result of tighter regulations being introduced to help protect consumers who want to carry out safe shopping online.

Sixty four per cent of outlets are taking steps to embrace encryption so that stolen data cannot be accessed by malicious third parties. This is especially important given that 52 per cent now make use of cloud-powered big data services to store and analyse customer information.

The move to the cloud has made IT more flexible and affordable for retailers of all sizes, but there are still fears about security in this environment, with many experts arguing that not enough is being done to protect data that is stored remotely rather than in-house.

For consumers, the advice is to remain aware of which retailers have made the biggest leaps in terms of security, while also taking the necessary precautions to stay safe online.