This month MasterCard held their annual Global Risk Management Conference in San Diego.  In order to gain some insight from one of the largest card brands, our own Director of Information Security, Blake Huebner, attended the event. This conference is an informative forum where security experts have the opportunity to share knowledge and best practices to protect businesses against fraud.

As a major player on the PCI council, MasterCard is on the front-line of upcoming issues in the security field. This annual event allows PCI industry-leading businesses to know what to expect and keep their customers ahead with cutting-edge technology and practices.  Appreciating the opportunity to hear about the current challenges that are impacting the payment card industry, service providers like BHI SecureConnect, can take part in general sessions, breakouts and other networking events to gain valuable information.

“It is important, as security experts to stay ahead on upcoming trends and innovative techniques,” said Huebner. “All these factors impact how we do business, what we offer our customers and how our solution remains one of the most comprehensive.”

A recent breach of the Sony Company PlayStation network, which started as a 6-day long network outage has erupted into possibly one of the top five largest breaches ever. Hackers, who breached the company on April 19th, obtained more than 75 million accounts of PlayStation users. Sony reported in a blog on Tuesday that some of the critical information stolen includes names, addresses, passwords, usernames, credit card numbers, expiration dates and even purchase history.

Experts, such as Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, agree that the particular information stolen will make it much easier for hackers to customize and create personalized scams. “”It’s extremely dangerous because it’s a perfect … targeting mechanism for targeted phishing.” Paller even predicts that the data may be used to contact gamers and try to sell them what appears to be a new game or features. “The big money in organized crime is still in those scams,” he added. “They work extremely well when they’re designed for you.”

Network users will have to be careful moving forward and watching how their information is used, protected and distributed.

Credit card data is very sensitive and is prone to being in danger of getting stolen. There are many ways in which a criminal could steal credit card data. These days even the criminals have become tech-savvy and are finding new and innovative ways to steal credit card data from machines without the owner realizing what has been done. Such a thing is commonly found in restaurants, which alone account for 58% of all credit card breaches. Restaurants are very easy targets for criminals and this has been proven time and again. If you own a restaurant then you need to properly secure your networks and do what you to prevent it.

Restaurants usually do not have the latest security compliances in place to protect credit card data. The machines in use might be outdated, which is another reason for them being such easy targets to steal from. Added to this is the constant hustle-bustle in the restaurant which makes it hard to keep track of what’s going on. Sure, the cameras might record the activity of all the people in the restaurant, but before you figure out what’s going on, the criminal could break into your computer and get all the information he requires. This is why restaurants are usually such easy targets for stealing credit card information.

 Protect your restaurant today and contact SecureConnect!

According to the 2011 Verizon Data Breach Investigation, criminal gangs are targeting more and more smaller-sized merchants. Although there are less records being obtained, these concentrated attacks are still profitable resulting in an increasing number of data breaches.

There are several factors that have influenced the new trend says senior risk analyst at Verizon, Chris Porter, including a high risk associated with breaching well-known and established companies such as the one Albert Gonzalez faced. Gonzalez, who was responsible for the data breach of TJX, who was eventually arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison for his crimes.

 “The folks that were responsible for some of the mega breaches of recent years are all behind bars and those that aren’t are scrambling from law enforcement right now,” Porter said. “Criminals are moving to smaller, less risky heists. But with that lower risk, they get a lower yield.”

Smaller merchant are also an easy target for hackers because many aren’t equipped with the proper security to protect against the basic methods of breaching attacks.  “A lot of these smaller organizations don’t have the expertise and resources to do what is necessary to defend them,” Porter said.

If you are a small merchant and you want to become PCI compliant and protect yourself from data breaches – contact SecureConnect today!

If you are running a restaurant then you might be aware of the fact that a lot of people like to pay with their credit cards instead of with cash. This is a very common trend nowadays and people do not like carrying around a lot of cash. Speaking about your restaurant again, you might be a little better off in your business if you managed to make your restaurant PCI compliant. This is because you will then be able to give an assurance to your customers that their data will be handled securely and will not be misused at all.

It is not an easy task to become PCI compliant, but it is not hard too. All you need to do is to make the necessary arrangements for protecting your customers’ credit card data when the cards are used at your restaurant. It will surely take some time to make the required arrangements, but it will be definitely worth it as your customers will then feel confident about using their cards at your restaurant, which could definitely mean new business opportunities for you as well. You just have to become PCI compliant and then let everyone know about it. You will then soon see a rise in your business.

Contact SecureConnect to become compliant today!