Use These Tips to Prevent Theft and Fraud
With an increase of mobile technology and online banking, security breaches and stolen identity have become more common in retail businesses. Even large companies have been breached, and the consumer information has been released. To prevent theft and fraud, My Digital Shield has provided some tips to implement in your point-of-sale systems:
- Strong Passwords: A surprising number of data breaches happen because business owners fail to use a smart password. They either use the default passwords, which almost always get revealed and exploited as the years pass, or they use passwords that are weak and easy to guess. Passwords that are single dictionary words without varied characters can be easily cracked by even novice hackers. The best passwords are alphanumeric, mix capital and lower case letters, and contain varied symbols. To prevent online breaches after a physical store break-in, the password should not be written down and left in the open or on a pad of paper.
- Up-To-Date Hardware: Out of date machines are much easier to bypass than newer machines…POS equipment isn’t designed to last forever. As such, they need to be replaced when it’s time.
- Protecting POS Credentials: This is important for small business owners and POS vendors. Once credentials get out into the open, “breach” becomes plural, as the credentials can often be used on all clients using the same POS software. POS vendors need to use the same smart password protocols as small businesses, and they would be wise to use different passwords for each individual client rather than using the same for all, which could cause widespread problems.
- Avoid Web Browsing on POS Terminals: An easy way to expose POS software vulnerabilities is to browse the web and accidentally download malware through a malicious website or a phishing scam. Best practice is to do all web work on a separate computer, or restrict where and what employees can browse. On both the separate computer and the POS terminal, an absolute must is…
- Good Antivirus Protection: All of the above practices mean nothing without quality protection in place. A strong firewall, denial of service defense, intrusion protection, malware/virus protection, encryption, and so on, are all essentials for small businesses to prevent security breaches and stay ahead of the curve.
For questions regarding POS systems, and to find the right POS system for you, visit our website at or call toll free at 1-877-580-9687.
