A Credit Card Security Primer for Startup and Independent Operators

As if independent and startup restaurateurs didn't have enough to worry about, along comes the daily news about hacking, credit card fraud, and bank fund theft.

These security threats are growing and experts say as online transactions grow so will the problems with keeping your hard-earned revenues safe and secure.

The numbers are staggering. Last year credit card losses topped $24.71 billion which represents a 12% increase over the previous year with almost half of the fraud happening in the United States. Some of the largest players in the restaurant industry have fallen victim to data breaches.

Between October 2016 and January 2017 hundreds of Arby's corporate owned stores had 350,000 credit and debit card numbers stolen. Cici's Pizza, Wendy's, Noodles & Company, and even Landry's, owners of Morton's, Bubba Shrimp, and other national brands, have been victims of massive breaches.

The list of major companies, in all kinds of industries, involved with data breach is seemingly endless and continues to grow. It's bad news for any brand because recent research states that 66% of consumers say they are reluctant to frequent firms that have had credit card breach problems.

If these big-name companies, and even some major credit card processors, can't keep the predators at bay what can smaller restaurant operators or startups do? Unfortunately, a great deal of the risk is beyond your control. That said, there are some simple steps you can take to boost the security of your guest's credit card data.

The good news is a fraction of one-percent of all purchases made with plastic credit cards are involved in fraud. Another advantage to restaurants is that about 45% of all credit card fraud is known as CNP (card-not-present) swindles. In most restaurant transactions, the customer is in the restaurant. Bolstering security in the restaurant business is the introduction of EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) chip-based credit card processing technology, which has reduced counterfeit credit card transactions.

As an independent operator, the relatively small size of your business tends to make you a less inviting target to hackers seeking credit card information and wanting to obtain huge amounts of data efficiently. The volume of your credit card transactions might not warrant the time and effort that offers the rewards the criminals are seeking.