From COVID-19 to conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war to rising costs from inflation and food supply chain issues, the last two-and-a-half years have not been easy for any of us. COVID-19 has impacted nearly every facet of our lives worldwide, but it has had a particularly strong impact on food security. World hunger and poverty has already been a major issue across the globe, and COVID-19 has only made things worse. According to the World Food Program (WFP) the number of severely...
By Maggie Paulk
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Data Security’s Importance for Retail Stores
Data security is a critical part of any retail store. Convenience store and grocery store computers and POS can hold a variety of personal data–from customer data to employee data and even store owner data–so it is important to make sure that information is kept safe from a data breach.
What exactly is data security?
Data security protects digital data from unwanted access, corruption, or theft. As a store owner, your computers hold a lot of data including payment data, personal data, and store data. Data security protects this personal information and makes it more difficult for a hacker to access.
What makes data security important for retailers?
Because retailers store an abundance of personal and private information, it is crucial to make sure that these digital assets are protected from theft or corruption. If a hacker is able to gain access to this information, you could experience a data security breach that can lead to devastating consequences for your store, customers, and employees.
What happens if my business experiences a data security breach?
During a data security breach, hackers can gain access to customer, employee, and potentially even store information including bank account information, customer card information, employee SSNs, addresses, and other personal information.
Unfortunately 80% of businesses take weeks to realize a breach occurred which can cause fraudulent payments to occur on customer cards or even business cards. Because of this, store owners may face penalties from the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. In addition to this, card network brands may also fine the business and you may have to cover credit monitoring for customers who had their information exposed. Your store will also have to assist with card replacement costs and help remediate the effects of any identity theft that occurred.
Now that you know some of the potential consequences of data security breaches, it is important to make sure you have up to date data security protection. Make sure to do research and choose the protection that works best for your store and its needs. Most importantly, having proper data security software protects your store, your employees, and your customers and keeps your business running smoothly.
4 ways to protect your store and customers from a data breach…
- Make sure your customer’s data is protected with PCI-validated P2PE and EMV on your terminals.
- Always properly destroy anything with confidential information on it prior to disposing of it.
- Maintain up-to-date security software.
- Minimize information stored on your computer by only keeping what is necessary, limiting the number of places that confidential data is stored.
