Though your restaurant may serve excellent meals and provide the best customer service in the city, if you run into trouble with credit card fraud, your valuable business will be driven quickly away. Trustwave, a global payment card security consultant, conducted a recent study where they discovered that nine out of 10 incidents in which cardholder data was compromised occurred at small merchants. Of these, 52 percent were in the food service industry. Surprisingly enough, more than twice as many of these fraud attacks occurred as a result of card-present transactions rather than online sales. 

Some of the reasons for certain security breaches occurring include operating on an unsecured internet network or using non-compliant, point of sale (POS) software, which improperly stores credit card information, according to the National Restaurant Association. In the event that your database is compromised, you must take immediately action to investigate what happened and work to prevent further damage to your business and your customers.

There are a few steps you must take if a security breach occurs. First, you must isolate your compromised systems by not logging on any of them. You must preserve all evidence for forensic investigation and notify local law enforcement. Furthermore, be on alert to monitor any further movement on the systems. Finally, you should consult your legal department regarding state and federal notification laws. You can learn more about what to do if you system is compromised by following this helpful link.

To avoid your customers losing confidence in your restaurant or you suffering from a damaged reputation due to a data compromise, contact Vantage to see how we can help your business become and stay PCI compliant. Overall, it is your duty as a merchant to ensure that your payment system is secure from hackers to keep you and your customers safe.