How do consumers get milk, if a virus attacks? Information technology is the backbone of retail shop chains also. A few years ago, receipts were written manually at the checkout counters of stores while today the cash systems are based on PCs and directly connected to larger computer systems. Tommi Räsänen, data security specialist at Kesko, describes the situation as follows: "Absolute pre-conditions for trading are well-functioning logistics and cash operations. At worst, a virus could paralyze the entire retail chain from warehouses to goods transport and cash registers. Milk would stay at the dairy. You can easily imagine the amount of losses, if a large supermarket was forced to close its doors for a couple of hours. This is why we have an antivirus program on each cash register itself or on the server to which the cash register is connected."The information technology management of Kesko Group bears overall responsibility for the data security of the Group, and practical measures are dealt with by the information management teams of each business unit. Services, software, and hardware needed by Kesko are provided by Tietokesko and other partners. "Our co-operation with F-Secure started in 1992 and the number of licenses grows continually. At the moment, F-Secure Anti-Virus is used to protect some 10 000 workstations and cash registers in Kesko Group. The main reasons to opt for F-Secure in 1992 were that their products had a local user-interface and they were easy to use. Furthermore, we wanted our supplier to be a company with a good reputation and to be able to provide high-class products with secured continuity. Today, one of the main criteria is fast service which ensures that virus signature file updates are distributed quickly and automatically to our workstations. We also receive sufficient and up-to-date support in Finnish. Nowadays, we also hold common quality meetings, maintain contacts with necessary parties and work together to polish our co-operation and procedures. We also utilize F-Secure Radar, which communicates information about new viruses immediately. At the moment we are testing mobile devices from various hardware suppliers and are considering their data security," Tommi Räsänen says."We are currently defining our new data security policies; it is vital to be up-to-date. The major challenges are to detect data security risks and to increase awareness about these risks. Training plays an important role here," Tommi Räsänen sums up the situation.Jaana Sirkiä, Communications Manager Begin | Back
Information technology is the backbone of retail shop chains also. A few years ago, receipts were written manually at the checkout counters of stores while today the cash systems are based on PCs and directly connected to larger computer systems. Tommi Räsänen, data security specialist at Kesko, describes the situation as follows: "Absolute pre-conditions for trading are well-functioning logistics and cash operations. At worst, a virus could paralyze the entire retail chain from warehouses to goods transport and cash registers. Milk would stay at the dairy. You can easily imagine the amount of losses, if a large supermarket was forced to close its doors for a couple of hours. This is why we have an antivirus program on each cash register itself or on the server to which the cash register is connected."