Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Restaurants sue POS firms over data theft, http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?id=376668#
As I read this article all I could think back to was our discussion in class the other day when Professor Ross stated that 70% of identity theft happens during checkouts and restaurants. In this article several restaurants in Louisiana are suing their POS provider and makers for hackers being able to steal customers information. I find this to be interesting in many aspects one being that how do they know if it was hackers and not their own staff handling the cards. Also, if it is hackers why hasn't the software been updated to the point where its more difficult to hack into the software. This situation seems to have cost restaurants a lot of money due to them having to incur expenses for audit fees, charge backs, and fines. If this is happening in then restaurants I tend to wonder how supervised are the servers in the establishments. How safe is it to eat out anymore when not paying cash?
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I found Cassie’s article to be very interesting. As everyone knows, identity theft is a rising problem these days. I would have never thought the restaurant industry to be a main target of identity theft though. When one thinks about the situation of a server in a restaurant, it would be easy for a server to jot down a credit card number and information. So, when talking about Cassie’s comment on whether you know if a hacker or a disloyal server is stealing your information could be a really difficult problem to solve.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand when you eat out at restaurants you would like to hope that the establishment has hired honest and honorable employees. As for hackers being able to crack data base systems, this has been an issue in many different stores for years now. I also agree that there should be better programs to protect customer’s identities, but I also believe it is so hard to do this because technology is always evolving.
Cassie's article is a very interesting one because I had never heard of anything that drastic happenning from a POS system. That people were able to obtain information from one of these systems and involve in illegal activities.
ReplyDeleteI most feel bad for the people who were violated because of set stolen information. It was good that restaurant did not let this die, and stood up for what they believe in. Systems need to become more and more advanced in order for things like this not to happen so easily. The one day that everyones information is safe is the day that everyone will be at peace.