Business Security Information ? Point of Sale Security ? Restaurants!

Recently, I have read about a few incidents of point-of-sale (POS) security breaches in restaurants.? In most of the cases, people who have eaten at these restaurants and paid by debit or credit card have experienced fraudulent charges to their cards.? The initial investigations in these restaurant cases ruled out a typical card skimming fraud.

Such an incident could happen in one of two ways.? First, the computer system that runs the POS has been compromised or infected so that debit and credit card data are being captured while they are processed through the POS system.? Secondly, the third party vendor hired to handle the credit and debit card information has been attacked and the information is captured while being handled by their network.

Any business using POS systems needs to properly protect their computers and systems but also needs to make sure that their third-party vendor evaluates and verifies their own security status.? Even though it is not easy to verify a third-party vendor?s security measures, you can determine that the vendor that processes your transactions is in compliance with PCI Security Standard.? The PCI Security Standard is a good beginning point but should be considered a baseline and not a silver bullet that will prevent all data breaches.

Why Should a Restaurant Worry

Reports have been coming out lately that restaurants are increasingly being targeted by fraudsters because the attackers have identified weaknesses in the restaurants? or third-party vendors? computer security measures.? Debit and credit card fraud at restaurants overall, but especially at fast food and pizza restaurants has been increasing over the past couple months.? This should concern you if you operate or manage a restaurant.

In most restaurants, one of the contributors to data breaches is the unusually high staff turnovers that occur as well as the lax hiring practices, such as no background checks or employment verifications, etc.? Small businesses with just one or two restaurants are still targets of data breaches.? Visa estimates that 95 percent of the credit card breaches involve small businesses.

Beyond evaluating current security measures and making plans to improve security for those vulnerabilities that are identified in a security assessment, make sure you have developed a notification plan to notify your customers if a data breach does occur.? How well you respond to your customers and their needs after an identified data breach will determine if you keep or lose those customers.

Take some time to evaluate your current security measures and talk to your third-party processor about their security to see if anything may need to be investigated further or whether other security improvements need to be implemented.? Remember, if you are not satisfied with the security of your? third-party processor, it is a good idea to change to one that will better protect the personal data of your customers.

Related posts:

1. Data Breach Threats and Small Business
2. Changes in Spear Phishing Attacks
3. ATM Skimming and Other Fraud Methods

Source: http://www.businesssecurityinformation.com/2011/08/point-of-sale-security-restaurants/

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