This festive season is an exciting time for consumers, and offers huge profit potential for retailers. Holiday retail sales for 2018 are set to surge by 4.1% over the same period last year. In addition, e-commerce sales are predicted to climb by an impressive 16.2%! Merchants that capitalize on this sales opportunity could enjoy a large bonus. Unfortunately, cyber criminals can take advantage of the holidays, too—and much like the Grinch Who Stole Christmas, threaten to ruin the season for unsuspecting victims. After all, attackers who gain access to consumers’ accounts can do more than just make fraudulent purchases; they can also steal confidential information for more dedicated attacks, and even use stolen account credentials to access financial and social accounts. Retailers should preemptively plan to protect themselves and their customers, review their cyber security strategy, and strengthen defenses to eliminate the risk of account takeover during the holidays. Account.