We're a year removed from the Target breach that rocked the retail industry over the 2013 holiday shopping season, and as this year's busiest time approaches, it's important for merchants to ensure they don't allow a repeat of that PR disaster. However, some industry experts suggest they aren't doing enough to mitigate the risk of a breach.

An article in USA Today suggests merchants are just as vulnerable this year as they were last year, even though a number of measures have been taken to improve overall payment security. The implementation of EMV technology was a major initiative this year, and earlier this fall Bank of America rolled out its security chip program. However, many stores have not implemented the technology needed to process these payments, according to the news source.

"In the wake of breaches, companies pledged to speed up issuance of chip cards and adopting the readers required to process the transactions," the article says. "But Walmart is the only major retailer currently accepting chip cards in stores."

There's also the case of Apple Pay and the legion of retailers steadfast in not accepting the payment method. The Walmart-led Merchant Consumer Exchange (MCX) are waiting for CurrentC to launch early next year, so retailers like Sears and Best Buy — both popular shopping destinations during the holiday season — won't have an NFC-enabled payment system available this year. That's not to say CurrentC won't be able to match Apple Pay in terms of convenience and security, but we will have to wait and see.

Ultimately, this is an important year for the retail industry, and although technology implementation is moving along at a slower pace than one would want, businesses can help their security efforts by reaching out to a merchant account services provider.