Cybertheft remains an ongoing challenge for restaurant operators as hackers seek to prey upon business owners who may not see cybersecurity as a top priority.
“Hackers know that you face time and resource constraints. They prey on businesses that are ill-prepared for an attack,” the National Restaurant Association said in its February 2016 Cybersecurity 101 report. “Just as you have made food safety an integral part of your quality assurance program, you need to also make cybersecurity a part of your operation. Improving security is a lot less expensive than dealing with a data breach.”
According to the 2019 Cost of a Data Breach Report from the Ponemon Institute, a research think tank focused on privacy and data protection, the global average cost of a data breach has reached $3.92 million, a 1.5% increase from a year ago.
In addition to costs from fines and forensic audits, restaurants also face the risk of losing business due to the brand damage that such a breach can cause among consumers.
The Ponemon Institute research also found that it is taking longer for organizations to identify and contain a breach: an average of 279 days, compared with 266 days in the company’s 2018 report. Malicious attacks, which account for 51% of data breaches—system glitches and human error account for the other 49%—take even longer to to contain, at an average of 314 days.
All that adds up to an urgent need for restaurant operators to ensure they have the right systems in place to prevent such breaches from occurring.
Many operators may be working with third-party POS providers with piecemeal security solutions that may not be the optimal choice for this vital function in a restaurant.
That’s why PDQ POS comes with PDQ Security® , a comprehensive, compliant and cost-effective cybersecurity platform that protects against all of today’s advanced cyber threats. By partnering with Sophos, the world’s leading cybersecurity company, PDQ can offer custom, end-to-end solutions for both payment data and all other sensitive data—whether it resides locally, on a network or in the cloud.
PDQ Security also offers inclusive vulnerability scanning and expert remediation to ensure ongoing compliance with PCI DSS and other policies. Additionally, PDQ Security includes security awareness and anti-phishing education, which help enhance your business’ protections against cyber-intrusion efforts.
Ease of use is also an important factor in selecting the right cybersecurity platform for your business. The right system will streamline all efforts to stay on top of cybersecurity issues in a single app or interface. Using PDQ Security’s Unified Security Management user interface, operators will be able to measurably reduce the time and effort it takes to detect, respond, contain and neutralize cyberthreats.
Amid the growing sophistication of cyber attacks worldwide and the accruing complexity and cleverness of malware, viruses and other cyberthreats, look to a leader in cybersecurity with the skill set that you need. Battle-tested and award-winning PDQ Security offers full PCI compliance and comprehensive, next-generation cybersecurity packages that will safeguard your most important asset: your brand.
PDQ has earned PCI DSS Level 1 compliance and PCI QIR certification. PDQ’s in-house security and in-house PCI teams are also certified to perform an array of expert security services. PDQ is an approved PCI provider for both Visa and MasterCard.
Learn more today at PDQpos.com and PDQsecurity.com.
This post is sponsored by PDQ POS