To help get more insight on breach protection insurance, we spoke with Robert Halsey, the president of an insurance brokerage firm, to get his take on the current situation of the data breach insurance market.  Below is what he had to say.

1. What is the demographic of those using data breach protection coverage?

2. Can you give any reasoning for these trends?

3. How would you describe the current market conditions for data breach protection insurance?

4. Can you explain what contractual liability coverage is and how it relates to data breach insurance coverage?

MURTEC is this week and being that it is the can’t-miss event for restaurant technology, SecureConnect will definitely be there.  For those who are not familiar, MURTEC is the Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference put on by Hospitality Technology magazine.  It brings together restaurant technology, finance and operations professionals and technology solution providers.  The event is extremely popular and more than 550 industry executives will be in attendance.

The event runs March 13-15th and is being held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV.  2013 marks the fifth year in a row that SecureConnect has attended as a vendor.   This event offers educational sessions, great networking and serves as an effective way to share and learn about technology best practices as they relate to the restaurant industry.  If you want to be ‘in the know’ with all new technology innovations and industry trends, this is a must-attend event for you! (more…)

Merchants take notice!  As of October 28, 2013, all payment applications that are validated according to the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) version 1.2 are facing their validation becoming expired.  This means the application vendor who provides you with your Point-of-Sale (POS) system will be deemed non-compliant (and so will you) unless they take the proper steps to meet the validation requirements of the updated PA-DSS version 2.0.

As a merchant, you need to make certain the payment application you have in place is a validated payment application according to the latest version of the PA-DSS.  This involves the following:

• Confirm your payment application is on the List of Validated Payment Applications on the PCI SSC’s website.  Here you can view which version of the PA-DSS your application is currently validated under, when they are up for revalidation and their validation expiration date.
• Keep an eye out for any phone calls, emails or communications from your application vendor in regards to necessary updates that need to be made to your payment application system.
• Contact your application vendor directly to find out what is expected of you as the merchant.  The upgrading process will vary by vendor and could range from simply downloading a software update/patch to your POS system to your vendor requiring you to install entirely new hardware.  (more…)

It’s that time of the year again!  In the spirit of the holiday season it is so important to take time to give thanks for what you have and to give back to those who are less fortunate.  This year SecureConnect, along with our parent company PerrillCo, has chosen to hold a toy drive through the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve’s Toys For Tots Foundation.  Our employees have been graciously donating toys since Thanksgiving and have collected a grand total of 113 Toys.

SecureConnect Inc. was also an official drop-off location for Toys For Tots.  Members of our community brought in an additional 36 Toys to our drop-off boxes.

The Toys For Tots Foundation in a non-profit organization that collects new, unwrapped toys during the holiday season and gives those toys as Christmas gifts to children in the community that are less fortunate.  The foundation has been around for over 60 years and has distributed over half a billion toys to children in need.  Last year in our Minneapolis/St. Paul area alone, Toys for Tots collected 218,000 toys.

For more information on the Toys For Tots Foundation or to donate, please visit http://www.toysfortots.org.

Check out our Flickr page for more picture of the toy drive!  (more…)

Thanksgiving is just a couple days away and the holidays are right around the corner.  If you have not done so already, now is the time to reaffirm that your business is prepared and secure for the busy holiday season.  Black Friday is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season and is hands down the busiest shopping day of the year.  However, retailers are not the only ones preparing for the rush.

According to the National Restaurant Association, 70 percent of all Americans who go shopping on Black Friday will dine out during their shopping trip.  That comes out to be about 32 million people!

The holiday season is traditionally busy for retailers and restaurants alike.  People are out and about shopping and partaking in holiday festivities, which often results in them being too busy to cook at home so they end up eating out more frequently.

The increase in traffic at your restaurant means more customers and more revenue.  This also means more credit and debit card transactions and more sensitive data moving through your business network.  Hackers are aware of the increased traffic during the holiday season and they see it as a prime time to hack into networks and steal data.  It is very important to be certain your network and POS system are secure so that you do not become a victim of a data breach during the holiday season.

(more…)