One of the latest credit card readers for businesses to process payments is through the new Square –it appears to be easy to use, affordable perhaps, however the biggest questions to ask yourself is it secure?

Is Square Secure?

What does secure mean? Well think of it from this perspective – what other uses does the audio port on the phone have? Plugging in your headset to listen to music is the only other use we can come up with. So if the only function of that port is to listen to music (which is an audio wave file and not data), what process needs to take place in order for the Square to “read” data from a mag stripe through an audio port and then send if for payment processing? Does the Square device itself come with an encryption key built in to secure your data? How secure is your clients’ credit card data? Are you prepared to be liable if client credit card information is not secure?

These are questions you really need to consider before processing credit card data through a device that may not be secure, and could end up being a very costly card to swipe if the data is stolen.