I’ve just come from the launch of the fourth e-Crime Wales summit and what more relevant news caught my ear as I left the hotel room earlier this evening, than the fact that according to the BBC the Cotton Traders website exposed up to 38,000 customer credit card details to hackers.

Whilst a terrible blow for Cotton Traders (it could kill lesser businesses) and as of 10pm tonight the story made 3rd headline on the BBC news website. Hopefully this unfortunate example will encourage other business owners to think seriously about how they secure their business within the online environment. The eCrime Wales event tomorrow demonstrates how the Welsh Assembly Government is working to educate businesses in Wales to address this very risk –if a brand like Cotton Traders is exposed, perhaps it takes a couple of these high profile failures to prompt sceptics to wake up and smell the coffee.

I caution readers not throw the baby out with the bathwater. We, as consumers, will continue to take calculated risks when making our purchases especially when it’s easier/ cheaper for us. What the Cotton Traders hacking demonstrates is that this continues to be serious and real threat to us all, and business owners as well as consumers, need to understand the risks and take some pretty basic steps to keep themselves secure.

Attend the e-Crime Wales summit tomorrow, book now online or if you can’t make it watch the live webcast to see what the experts say.