8 Essentials Of Restaurant Networks And Protection From Hackers

By Jim Ealy, Heartland Payment Systems, SmartLink Division

Restaurant networks today are much like the airways and airports many of us travel every day.  Networks need to provide successful delivery of data to and from multiple users, applications, and devices just as jetliners transport passengers around the world.  And networks also need to provide security, both at the edge and through the network, for all of this data just like airports and air marshals provide today for their many travelers. 

The honest truth is that task can be equally as daunting for the restaurateur to manage their network, than it is for our governments and agencies around the world to manage the airways. Security has become paramount on both fronts, with focus on preventing unwanted access to the network at the edge, or point of entry. For restaurateurs, this means investing in often expensive in-store technology to help thwart hackers and viruses.

The following sobering industry statistics better represent the overall threat and potential impact to a restaurant today:

• $75K average cost impact to a restaurant from a breach
• 50 percent of breached restaurants will be out of business within 1 year
• 1 in 8 restaurants will suffer a breach event in the next two years

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