Retail sits at an uncomfortable intersection. More customer payment data flows through more digital surfaces than almost any other industry, and the average breach cost has climbed to $3.54 million (up 18% in a single year). The threats have shifted with the shopping experience. Magecart-style skimming attacks (malicious code injected directly into checkout pages) remain one of the most persistent risks in e-commerce, serious enough that the PCI Council made new script-monitoring requirements mandatory in 2025 specifically to catch it. Credential stuffing and account takeover now drive a large share of retail web attacks, point-of-sale malware still accounts for a significant share of physical-channel breaches, and with thousands of seasonal employees rotating through POS and helpdesk access every year, retail runs one of the highest-turnover identity environments of any sector. The stakes are simple. Customers don’t distinguish between “we got hacked” and “we lost your card number.” It’s the same sentence to them either way.