The document outlines how retailers face heightened ransomware risk during peak seasons due to the concentration of valuable data, reliance on customer trust, complex third-party ecosystems, and predictable timing that attackers exploit. It explains how ransomware has evolved into an industrialized Ransomware-as-a-Service model, amplified by AI that accelerates reconnaissance, deception, evasion, and attack prioritization. The paper describes how attacks typically unfold over weeks, beginning with phishing or compromised credentials, followed by lateral movement, data exfiltration, and double extortion. It stresses that human error is inevitable and defenses must absorb it rather than collapse. The guide concludes that resilience depends less on reactive incident response and more on archi

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