E-commerce and distribution businesses operate on thin margins where a day of downtime — whether from a ransomware attack, a platform failure, or a supplier compromise — can wipe out a quarter's profit. The threat surface is unusually broad: customer payment data on the storefront, inventory and pricing systems in the backend, connected logistics providers, and a growing web of third-party marketplaces and dropshipping partners.

PCI-DSS compliance is the regulatory floor, but it's rarely the full answer. Most attacks on smaller operators come through compromised admin credentials, unpatched plugins on the storefront platform, or supply-chain chokepoints — not through the payment card data path that PCI covers. And cyber insurers now expect to see evidence of basic controls: MFA on admin access, regular patching, documented incident response.

Most e-commerce operators I work with are brilliant at product, marketing, and logistics — and under-resourced on the security side. A fractional CISO who understands retail operations and can apply practical, proportionate controls usually delivers more value than a full-time hire or a bolt-on compliance exercise.