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Restaurant Data Concepts, Inc. will vigorously defend itself if pending litigation comes to fruition. The company and its product have been PCI certified since the inception of these industry standards.
The credit card industry has been imposing new PCI standards for protecting cardholder data from theft over the past 5 years. Card processors have added provisions to their contracts with merchants that require them to secure cardholder data in all forms and also makes the merchant responsible for stolen card numbers.
In response to the emerging PCI standards for protecting cardholder data, Restaurant Data Concepts changed its approach to handling credit cards in 2005. “We got completely out of the business of storing cardholder data permanently. We simply stopped storing any card processing information altogether,” says Peter Lipman, CTO of RDC, the manufacturer of the POSitouch restaurant POS application. For users of the POSitouch application that was purchased prior to the existence of PCI standards, updates have been available to meet these requirements.
However, installing PCI compliant software is only one small piece of the merchant’s responsibility to meet their contracted obligation with their card processor. Securing their computer system’s network with commercial grade firewalls, using properly supported operating systems, vigorous password controls and cleaning data accumulated from the pre-PCI era would be some of the more important steps the merchant must implement.
According to Mr. Lipman, “as a software manufacturer we are required not only to make our software PCI compliant, but to provide documentation and tools to help a merchant comply with the new requirements.” RDC has been an early adopter of these PCI requirements and has even taken the level of security it offers beyond the scope imposed to meet these regulations. “We worked with our PCI auditor to create documentation for our resellers and their end users to assist in implementing these upgrades. As part of our certification, we also provide tools that can be used to purge pre-existing cardholder data.” Restaurant Data Concepts and its POSitouch application are certified as PCI compliant and continue with that designation.
Ultimately the requirement for PCI compliance is spelled out in the contract between the merchant and the card processor. It is not overly difficult of expensive for a merchant to protect themselves against theft of cardholder information, but they should contract with a qualified professional to assist them. A small expenditure to upgrade and secure their system can stave off significant costs and penalties from their card processor should they be subject to a breach. It is hoped that the card processing industry will find better ways to inform their merchants of the seriousness of the situation and help them obtain the technical assistance they may need to meet the requirements that they have placed upon their merchant/customer.
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