Of Businesses and PCI
The Impact of Hacking on Pizza Businesses
Recent reports have highlighted the need for increased Businesses Protecting against unauthorized charges, as evidenced by incidents at Arby’s in Temple, Texas, and Wendy’s. Arby’s attributed the unauthorized charges in their restaurant to a credit card processing issue, while Wendy’s dealt with cyber attacks involving malware on their point-of-sale systems in several franchise-operated restaurants. These cases underscore the growing concern and necessity for robust cybersecurity measures in the retail and food service industries.
Global Unauthorized Charges
Wendy’s also encountered cybersecurity challenges, with several franchise-operated restaurants being hit by malware attacks. These incidents involved a specific malware variant targeting their point-of-sale systems, highlighting the increasing cyber threats faced by businesses in the fast-food industry.
Loss of Business Due to Security Concerns
The Wendy’s data breach, though not initially receiving significant media attention, had serious implications and undoubtedly caused reputational damage to the company. The breach affected over 1,000 franchisee-owned locations and exposed customer names, card numbers, and security verifications. The breach stemmed from compromised remote access credentials, allowing hackers to deploy malware. Wendy’s response involved disabling the malware and enhancing cybersecurity measures across its franchisees.
This incident highlights the critical need for robust vendor and third-party management, as well as comprehensive risk assessments to prevent similar breaches. For more details, you can read the article on Logic Manager’s website.
PCI Compliance: A Necessary Standard
The merchant hadn’t heard of PCI compliance before — those Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that companies process, store, and transmit credit card information in a secure environment.
The Case of the Pizza Parlor
According to a profile in the Lompoc Record about the issue, businesses like that, “called Level 4 merchants, must pass a vulnerability scan by a PCI-approved scanning vendor. They must do this annually.
Requirements for PCI Compliance
Another requirement is that they acquire and maintain a secure Internet connection between their web browser and the web server.” PCI regulations, the article notes aren’t a law yet but “will probably become a law soon, with policing to follow.”
Advocacy for PCI Standards
And the parlor owner is “going to become an advocate of PCI standards and will spend time helping other Lompoc businesses become PCI compliant as well.”
AVPS: Promoting PCI Compliance
We’ve long been advocates of PCI compliance here at AVPS, and a lot of our processing options, like On-the-Spot Processing, Mail Order and Telephone Order accounts, and more are already PCI compliant.
Ensuring Your Business is PCI Compliant
Talk to your AVPS rep today to find out how you can make all aspects of your business PCI compliant. Don’t find out the hard way that it isn’t!
