Business Strategy Case Study

Securing the High Street

Physical and technical security testing for a multi-national retailer

Client Overview

Our client is an established high street retailer with a significant multi-national footprint. Like many organisations in the retail sector, they had grown increasingly aware of the cyber threats facing physical stores and the corporate infrastructure that supports them and wanted independent assurance that their defences would hold up against a real-world attacker.

The Challenge

Retail environments present a distinctive attack surface. Stores are open to the public, staffed by large teams, and packed with connected devices, from point-of-sale (POS) systems to back-office equipment, all of which typically sit on networks that ultimately connect back to corporate systems. A weakness at store level can, in the wrong hands, become a foothold into the wider business.

Concerned about this risk, the client approached us to explore a testing engagement: a realistic assessment designed to test not just their technical controls, but their people, processes, and physical security, in the same way a genuine attacker would.

Our Approach

Our initial engagement combined several strands of testing:

• Store-to-corporate network testing – assessing whether a compromise at store level could be used to move laterally into the client’s corporate environment.
• In-store device testing – examining the security of equipment used day-to-day in stores, including POS systems, to identify exploitable weaknesses.
• Physical penetration testing – attempting to gain unauthorised access to restricted and private areas within stores, testing the effectiveness of physical security controls and staff vigilance.
• Detection and response validation – evaluating how effectively the client’s security team could identify and respond to the activity generated during testing, particularly attempts to bridge store and corporate environments.

Key Outcomes

The engagement delivered a clear and valuable picture of the client’s security posture:

• Our team successfully demonstrated physical access to restricted areas within store environments, highlighting real-world risks around physical security controls.
• Testing confirmed that the client’s monitoring capabilities were able to detect attempts to move between store and corporate environments – a strong result that validated existing investment in detection and response.
• The engagement identified a number of findings during “breakout” testing (attempts to escalate from store-level access into the corporate network), which the client moved quickly to remediate.

Retesting and Remediation

Following the initial engagement, we conducted a focused retest of findings identified during the breakout testing phase. This confirmed that the client had successfully remediated the issues raised, closing off the routes that could otherwise have allowed an attacker to pivot from a compromised store into the wider corporate estate.

Client Feedback and Ongoing Partnership

The client was impressed by the depth and realism of the testing, particularly the combination of physical, technical, and detection-focused assessment within a single engagement. As a result of the insight gained, further testing opportunities have already been identified for future work, and we continue to support the client as a trusted security partner.

Summary

The solution met all the client’s requirements effectively, providing enhanced security by ensuring that all malware testing was conducted securely, detached from the core network. The fixed annual cost model provided financial predictability, allowing the client to budget accurately. Brookcourt’s management ensured high reliability and adherence to best security practices, reinforcing their status as a trusted partner. The partnership resulted in a secure solution that enhanced the client’s cyber security posture while maintaining operational efficiency and cost control.