Industry
Offensive Security for RETAIL.
Retailers hold what attackers want: payment data, customer accounts and the systems that keep stores and checkout trading. The Swarm attacks your whole organization the way they would, across digital, social and physical, so you know what holds before peak season tests it for you.
THE THREAT.
What would an attacker take from you first?
Your business changes at pace: new channels, new suppliers, new stores, new staff every season. That change keeps you competitive. It is also what keeps attackers interested, because every change is a window they can wait for.
The real risk isn’t a vulnerability. It’s what happens when one is exploited: stores that can’t transact, online orders on hold, customer data on a leak site and a disclosure to make. Trading continuity, not security theater.
They want your customers’ cards.
A single malicious script on your checkout page can copy every card typed into it. Customers pay as normal, and you find out from your card scheme.
They want you closed.
Ransomware doesn’t need to steal a thing. Take down stores, distribution or online ordering, and every hour offline is revenue you never get back.
They want your customers.
Loyalty accounts, saved cards, order history. Taken over or leaked, they become fraud, notifications and customers who shop somewhere else.
We attack the paths into your stores.
Attackers don’t pick one way in. They chain a service desk call, a supplier connection and an unwatched checkout script until they reach something that pays. The Swarm works the same way.
Identity and service desk
Stores, warehouses, contact centers and seasonal staff make for a huge, changing workforce. One convincing call to the service desk can reset a password, re-register MFA and hand an attacker a working account.
Suppliers and third parties
Every integration is a way in, and supplier access is rarely reviewed after onboarding. We test the routes into your business that run through someone else’s.
Checkout and payment pages
Tag managers, analytics, personalization and consent tools: your checkout runs dozens of third-party scripts. Each one is a potential injection point, and every change cycle opens new exposure.
Customer data and AI
Loyalty platforms, CRM, marketing automation and AI-assisted customer service, all connected to vast customer datasets and often with weak access controls.
Store estate and edge
POS, payment terminals, kiosks, Wi-Fi, CCTV and back-office systems across hundreds of sites. Always on, widely spread and rarely treated as part of the perimeter.
Physical access and insiders
High staff turnover, seasonal workers and busy stock rooms. We test whether someone can walk in, plug in or be let in, and what they can reach once they are.
We know that real attack surfaces don’t come in neat categories. If yours doesn’t fit above, tell us what you’re working with.
The only way to be confident is to face a real attacker.
We become the threat. CovertSwarm gives your retail business a team of elite ethical hackers, augmented by agentic tools, that thinks, acts and strikes like a real attacker.
Between tests you onboard seasonal staff, launch campaigns, open stores, migrate platforms and add suppliers. Your Swarm attacks your whole organisation continuously, across checkout, shops, suppliers and service desks, so the gaps that open between tests are found by us first, not by an attacker at peak.
Proof of where you really stand, for your board, your insurers and your QSA.
Let’s find out.
Constant pressure.
We attack every route to what keeps you trading: a call to your service desk, a stranger at a stock room door, a malicious script on your checkout page. Like a real attacker, we stay fixed on an objective, all within safe boundaries agreed in your Attack Thesis.
Continuous attack cycles. No fixed scopes.
Suppliers, campaigns, stores and seasonal staff change between annual pen tests. Our attacks run in cycles, not on a fixed schedule, and keep pace. So does your evidence: proof of what held and what broke, every cycle, not one report a year. It complements your annual pen test and supports what your QSA, insurers and board ask for.
Human experts, augmented by AI.
The Swarm is a team of elite ethical hackers. Agentic tools map your endpoints and third-party connections fast, so humans spend their time chaining weaknesses. You get direct access to the team attacking your brand via Slack.
How it works for retail
Your subscription starts with your Attack Thesis: what matters most, and what adversaries would target first.
It starts with what an attacker would want from you. Can someone get a script onto checkout? Can a call to the service desk take over a store manager's account? Can a supplier connection reach stock management?
We agree the objectives and guardrails before anything runs.
Recon
We gather intelligence about your organization, and prepare to attack key objectives, using both open-source and agentic methods.
New assets enter scope as they emerge.
Qualified findings, not a stream of alerts.
Last cycle's findings direct the next.
OSINT + Agentic reconnaissance
Attack
Based on intelligence or strategic goals, we build and execute custom Attack Plans. We chain weaknesses and exploit every route.
Custom built plans target your actual risk
Chained across digital, physical and social
Led by humans with agentic capability
Point the Swarm at your priorities
Remediate
We notify your team about discovered risks in real-time and provide guided remediation. Get evidence of what held, and what needs work.
You're notified while the risk is live
Guidance in Slack and Jira
Findings inform the next attack cycle
Direct access to the Swarm
See how Constant Cyber Attack™ works in a retail environment.
What a Finding Looks Like
Example: Service desk finding in Retail
Critical
Finding
A Swarm operator called the internal support line posing as an employee just back from vacation. Despite several verification questions, the desk issued a password reset and changed the MFA device to a burner phone.
Impact
Full mailbox access within minutes. A second operator joined and enumerated internal project data, sensitive client information, credentials and access tokens.
Remediation
Apply identity verification consistently on every reset, require a callback to a known number before any MFA change, and back staff who refuse.
Board impact
MFA was in place and still didn't stop it. The gap was a process under pressure, the kind every busy service desk faces after a holiday or during peak season.
Technical impact
The MFA re-registration let the operator satisfy MFA from an attacker-controlled device, giving persistent mailbox access and a source of credentials and tokens for lateral movement.
Want the full picture?
The full range of offensive security the Swarm runs: every discipline, how they connect, and what each one tests.
No form fill required.
Proof your board, insurers and auditors can see.
Every checkout change, new supplier and platform migration is a security event and, increasingly, a compliance one. Every Swarm cycle produces evidence of what was attacked, what held and what was fixed.
| Obligation | What it asks for | How the Swarm supports it |
|---|---|---|
| PCI DSS v4.0.1 | Penetration testing at least annually and after significant changes, plus script management and change detection on payment pages, mandatory since 31 March 2025. | Checkout and payment paths attacked every cycle, including after changes, with evidence for your QSA. |
| SEC cybersecurity disclosure (public retailers) | Material incidents disclosed on Form 8-K within four business days of determining materiality, plus an annual description of risk management. | Evidence of how cyber risk is identified and tested, to support the annual description. |
| State privacy and breach notification laws | Every state requires breach notification. California also lets consumers sue over breaches caused by a failure to maintain reasonable security. | Evidence that the paths to customer data are tested against real attacks. |
| Cyber insurance | Insurers increasingly ask for evidence of testing and controls such as MFA at renewal. | Cycle-by-cycle evidence your broker and insurer can review. |
Stories from the Swarm
These stories are real, but the names are deeply redacted. We'll tell you how we uncovered the threats no one else could see, and why constant cyber attack is the best way to outpace cyber threats.
Become a story well told. Contact us to discuss how Constant Cyber Attack will help you outpace cyber threats.
Frequently Asked Questions
Penetration testing for retail is a controlled attack on a retailer by qualified ethical hackers, to find the weaknesses a real attacker would use to reach payment data, customer accounts or the systems that keep you trading. Continuous red teaming goes further, chaining weaknesses across checkout, stores, suppliers and staff the way real attackers do.
Most often through people and partners rather than code. A call to the service desk that resets a password and MFA, a supplier connection nobody reviews, or a malicious script added to checkout. That's why the Swarm attacks all three, not just your websites.
Yes, it supports it. PCI DSS requires penetration testing at least annually and after significant changes, and continuous cycles test your checkout and payment paths as changes happen. It supports your QSA's assessment rather than replacing it.
No. We work with the restraint a live retail estate needs. Guardrails, priorities and timing are agreed in your Attack Thesis before anything runs, so the goal is to find what breaks without breaking your operations.
All three. The Swarm attacks digital, social and physical routes, because real attackers move between a phishing email, a service desk call and an unlocked stock room door.
An annual test is a photograph of one moment; continuous red teaming is the film. Between tests you add staff, suppliers, campaigns and platforms, and the Swarm tests each change as it happens instead of a year later.
Looking for something specific?
Talk to us. We'd love to hear from you.
Stop testing.
Start knowing.
You'll know exactly where you stand, and you'll be able to prove it. To your board, your regulator, and yourself.
Transform to a proactive, continuous offensive security program
Your budget is aimed at the risk that matters, not the one you were handed
You show the board what security prevented, not a request for more
Security clears the way for the business to move faster
You enter the boardroom in command
It starts with a 30-minute Attack Discovery call.
No access to your systems required.