As North Face and Cartier join Adidas, Marks & Spencer and Co-op on a growing list of major retailers facing sophisticated cyber attacks in 2025, the message is clear: no business is too big – or too prepared – to be breached. With the stakes rising, author and former NATO advisor Paulo Cardoso do Amaral says cyber attacks must be considered as ‘inevitable’ and that retailers need to put military-grade digital defence strategies in place as a matter of course.
Paulo Cardoso do Amaral claims these incidents show that retailers must abandon the outdated mindset of reactive security. Instead, they need to lead with defence as a strategic priority from the top down. “Cyber attacks are now part of doing business,” says Amaral. “It’s no longer a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ and often, ‘how bad.’ That’s why companies must shift from passive risk mitigation to active defence planning,” he adds.
Amaral warns that these breaches are not isolated events, but signs of a widening digital warfront targeting retail supply chains, customer data, and operational infrastructure.
“Retailers are attractive targets. Hackers use personal data like names, emails, and behavioural insights, not just financial data, to infiltrate systems or commit fraud,” says Amaral. “Impersonating employees, especially third-party contractors, is alarmingly effective. Once inside, hackers often operate undetected until after data is exfiltrated and by then, the damage is done.
As MBA Professor and author of Business Warfare, Amaral adapts principles from military strategy – such as situational awareness, tactical agility, and intelligence gathering – into a robust framework for modern business resilience.
He has served as a Scientific Advisor on Cybersecurity to NATO, held CIO roles in the private sector, and teaches strategic leadership at Católica Lisbon, Tsinghua University (Beijing), and Solvay Business School (Brussels). He has also taught across all three branches of the Portuguese military academies.
Drawing on his background in both military and corporate strategy, Amaral offers retailers the following urgent, actionable guidance:
Tightly manage and actively monitor all employee logins, especially contractor accounts.
Combat social engineering with proactive countermeasures and internal awareness training.
Assume compromise is possible: treat internal users and systems as potential threats.
Ensure business continuity plans go beyond documentation: cold storage backups must be in place for rapid system recovery.
“Just as militaries train for chaos, so must retailers. They need to plan, rehearse, and respond in real time. Strategy is no longer optional – it’s survival,” says Amaral.
