As we officially kick off summer this Memorial Day weekend here are 6 security tips for your summer holidays.
I mean, for your business – whether you are in the travel and tourism industry or not – there are a lot of crazy things that can happen during the summer and you should be aware of the latest trends in fraud protection and how to prevent it from happening in your business.
1. Change your passwords regularly. Seems simple, but not enough business owners do this, often enough.
2. Have separate and unique passwords for each employee or team member who has access to payment processing systems.
3. Update your POS and credit card processing software. If you are not on the latest software release you could be at risk from processing fraudulent credit cards.
4. Run your PCI compliance scans. Don’t know how to do this? E-mail us, we can help.
5. Never write down credit card numbers, not even for a moment when the system is slow. This is a huge risk and has been non-PCI compliant for over 10 years but I see people do this in businesses every day.
6. Verify that you have the latest TLS security software on your payment processing systems – upgrade deadline is next month!
These are just 6 simple things that you can do and there are many other ways to have a safe, secure and profitable summer season.
This last item is actually a pretty important change that is coming to the payment systems industry. The PCI Council is not taking it lightly and neither should you.
We’ve been hearing about it for months and as soon as we heard the deadline, we started talking about it with all of our clients, but now it is here and they are not backing down from these new requirements.
If you would like help with making sure that you are ready for the summer season, or have all of the right processes in place, please reach out to us for a quick review of your security systems and software.
Want one more tip? (This one is for everyone – even if you don’t own a business.)
Protect yourself from the sun and have a great, big umbrella to enjoy the outdoors without getting burned.
Cheers to a great summer, Happy Memorial Day!
~ Mary Ann