In an effort to address retail fraud in South Africa, worsened by increasing digitisation and cybercrime, retail software specialist RedPanda Software has partnered with UK-based forensic analysis solutions provider IntelliQ to bring fraud analytics to more retailers.

According to the companies, retail shrinkage, or loss of inventory, can be attributed to many factors such as employee theft, shoplifting, administrative error, vendor fraud, cybercrime, damage and cashier error. The end result means a loss of profits for retail businesses.

redPanda Software understands that retail shrinkage is a persistent problem with real implications for the bottom line.

In 2021 TransUnion research found that a year into the pandemic, 37% of South African consumers had been targeted by digital fraud. It also found that 17.5% of all global e-commerce transactions and 7,8% of South African transactions between Black Friday last year and the next Tuesday were potentially fraudulent.

redPanda Software and IntelliQ believe online crime syndicates are well-aware that as retailers increasingly digitise their businesses and move to omnichannel strategies to improve their engagement with customers, there is an exponentially increased attack surface, such as the “buy online, pick up in store” functionality, among much more.

This danger extends to threats inside a business, such as rogue employees or systems that need addressing, they add.

Gerhard Nortje, redPanda Software Managing Director says: “This partnership enables us to provide retailers with many years’ experience in shrinkage reduction through the deployment of the IntelliQ fraud analytics solution.”

According to IntelliQ, the Forensic Analysis solution provides retailers with “a sophisticated fraud analytics platform for identifying invisible employee dishonesty at the point of sale, as well as procedural non-compliance and external fraud incidents including ecommerce and omnichannel.”

Gareth Davies, IntelliQ Business Development Director, says the partnership helps IntelliQ to build its existing South African client base. “IntelliQ is delighted to be partnering with redPanda Software to offer our solution to the South African retail sector. This market is extremely important to us and redPanda Software was our natural partner to aid us in better serving both existing and prospective clients in the market. We look forward to helping South African retailers with identifying and deterring employee fraud as well as the additional value and experience that redPanda Software brings to our fraud analytics solution.”

Peter Ludi, Business Development Director at redPanda Software, said, “This news is in line with our continued dedication to providing our clients with the best solutions that address the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities in the South African retail environment. This collaboration with IntelliQ unlocks the unparalleled domain expertise in loss prevention fraud analytics for SA retailers, complemented by redPanda Software’s deep understanding of our retail markets. It’s a winning combination and looks set to make a huge impact in the fight against retail fraud.”

SLVA and BullWall

SLVA Cybersecurity has announced a new partnership with Danish technology innovator, BullWall, to empower South African businesses with a laser-focused last line of defence ransomware solution.

In a statement the companies refer to estimates that suggest a ransomware attack occurs every 11 seconds globally and causes an average of 23 days of downtime. In South Africa, the average cost of remediation from a ransomware attack was R6.4 million with 50 to 70% of all attacks aimed at SMEs.

To address this, they firms have united to roll out a multi-layered containment solution, RansomCare (RC), to help detect and react to malicious file corruption and encryption.

“The solution is agentless and utilises more than 20 detection sensors to detect the tell-tale signs of active ransomware,” the statement reads.

Patrick Evans, CEO SLVA.

Patrick Evans, CEO SLVA, said ransomware is constantly evolving, becoming more powerful, aggressive, and financially devastating. “We are very excited about our partnership with BullWall as it will enable clients to become more resilient and ensure business continuity in the face of a ransomware attack. It’s a partnership that has real relevance for South Africa as one of the top five most targeted nations for ransomware in the world.”

He continued: “Despite deploying endpoint protection, too many organisations fall victim to ransomware. This is because attacks target file shares, which is why a last line of defence solution designed to stop malicious encryption on monitored file shares and file servers is so vital.”

Evans added that the financial implications of a ransomware attack are staggering. “The risks are significant and impact businesses who can least afford it. SME businesses are frequent targets and the vast majority of those, at around 60 percent, do not survive the next six months. A ransomware attack can easily encrypt up to 10,000 files per minute. A proven, 24/7 automated response like BullWall complements existing security defences and instantaneously detects data anomalies and events.”

The companies said SonicWall Capture Labs logged nearly 500 million attempted ransomware attacks from January to September last year, which amounts to a 148% surge as compared to the same period last year.