The SCORE 2015 Issue 2 | Page 36

Can Your Business Survive a Data Breach? 2015 Issue 2 | THE SCORE 34 R ecently in the news are accounts of various businesses who have been victimized by a security breach allowing intruders/hackers access to credit card information. Jimmy John’s had a potential security breach involving customers’ credit and debit card data at 216 of its stores and franchised locations. The breach allegedly was caused by an intruder who obtained the login information from a vendor then remotely accessed the point-of-sale systems. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro was victimized by an intruder who stole the credit and debit card information of customers for nearly eight months. These are just a few of the many examples of data breaches that seem By John Stivarius to permeate the news. Is your business taking affirmative steps to reduce the likelihood of a cyber-attack? There are essentially two types of attacks. One involves the point-of-sale at the location, wherein the theft occurs from locally held stored information. The other happens through Internetstored information at host locations. The most pertinent question to any business is “Do you know where you currently stand?” You also need to be thinking about: • How capable is the business in the protection of the data? • When is the last time the data was cleaned of extraneous