As reported last week, the Black Hat conference in Vegas has come and gone, and left us with an array of news on security threats both tangible, and theoretical. You can find a good round up of this year’s “greatest hits” for the security conference, in this overview from PC World.
Year: 2014
Credit Card Readers Are Great for Vendors
While a credit card reader can benefit any business, big or small, retail or doorstep, they are also great for vendors who sell products roadside, on-the-go, at Farmer’s Markets, and at various events. If you have been in the business long at all, with no way to accept credit cards, you have certainly lost customers who did not have enough cash on them and had to walk away, even though they did not want to. With technology on your side, there is no reason to lose sales ever again.
Black Hat Roundup: Goodwill, A Billion Passwords, and other “Hacker” News
Well, it’s time for the annual “Black Hat” conference in Las Vegas, which is actually a conference run by “white hats” to discuss security breaches in our wired world, and to share knowledge of any breaches or security lapses they’ve discovered before the real “black hats” do.
Are You Trying to Start Your Own Business?
Maybe you’re a young man or woman with big dreams, trying to get your first business off the ground. Maybe you’re a middle-aged man or woman determined to finally follow your own dreams of becoming your own boss. Or maybe you’re an existing 1-5 person business trying to grow. You might even be a larger business that simply wants to keep up with all that technology has to offer and utilize it for business growth, convenience, and flexibility.
Card Processing Solutions for Your Business
Every business needs the ability to accept credit cards. Whether you’re a new business or an existing business looking to change credit card processing providers, there are several things you should look for in a provider.
Are Cards More Cost Effective For Merchants Than Cash?
A new study from financial analysts at the Aite Group says that handling both Debit and Credit cards is more cost effective for merchants and retailers than handling cash.
According to details in the Credit Union Times, the report, “Tender Truths: The Real Cost of POS Transactions in the U.S., found debit cards the least expensive method of payment for merchants, costing significantly less per transaction than cash or cards.It broke down the costs of different payment types across three broad retail sectors: specialty retailers, quick service restaurants and convenience stores.”
The Benefits of Accepting Checks & Processing Checks Online
While the use of credit cards has exploded over the last years and many people carry plastic, many people still also use checks. If your business does not accept checks, both online and off, you could be losing money to your competitors who do. When shopping online, people will abandon their shopping cart if they reach the checkout and cannot use their preferred payment method. When shopping offline, people expect to be able to write a check so they can use the money in their bank account. If you cannot accommodate them, they may walk away.
A Handy AVPS Guide to Point-of-Sale Security, Pt. II: Mitigation & Protection
Last week, we mentioned card issuer alerts calling for more vigilance on the part of merchants to “shore up” their Point-of-Sale systems, in an age of increased hacking, breaches, and network intrusion. This lack of security has resulted in some unfortunately spectacular “virtual break-ins,” like the Target breach and the ones that followed, resulting in the information for millions of customers being pilfered, compromised, and sold not only to the “highest bidder,” but to whoever meets the price of those vending the data.
A Handy AVPS Guide to Point-of-Sale Security. Pt. I: Remote Access
In our current climate of “hackery” and security breaches, the number of alerts and advisories going to out to companies like ours is on the increase. Many of these have valuable information that we feel should be passed along to our customers, so they can use these ideas, deploy them, to keep their own transactions — and their customers — as safe as possible.
