This article will give you a quick glimpse into what you need to do to protect yourself from the looming threats of non-compliance with PCI (Payment Card Industry) and EMV standards.

As a restaurant owner, you always want to do all you can to run things as smoothly as possible. One of the biggest areas of concern for restaurants today is compliance and data security. The difference between being fully compliant, with proper security for your point of sale (POS), and not is as dramatic as night and day. It could mean the difference between being held financially responsible for non-compliant transactions and/or having credit card data compromised. 

We’ll start with PCI compliance. Simply stated, being PCI compliant means a merchant is doing everything according to the Data Security Standard. One of the quickest ways to determine where your business stands is by going online and visiting PCI Rapid Comply^® Solution. It’s a simple PCI compliance wizard to help you determine how well you’re adhering to the latest security standards. It even has next steps to follow to make your compliance process as easy as possible.

Next up, EMV. In October 2015, all businesses accepting electronic payments were required to have EMV-compliant point of sale systems. These EMV-compliant systems are capable of reading the extra security layers transmitted by EMV chip-enabled cards. When businesses don’t have an EMV-compliant point of sale system, they are automatically liable for any fraudulent transactions if they accept payment from an EMV chip card. So, being EMV compliant means a merchant has the latest hardware to take the next-generation payment cards with the new security features.

Finally, let’s look at POS security. This is generally where you’re most vulnerable to data breaches. With Clover Security, you get the latest end-to-end encryption and tokenization technology to help protect your customers’ data from the moment their card is swiped. Knowing your POS system is protected ultimately provides the peace of mind you need to focus on doing what you do best — running your business.

The Clover Station 2018 is an all-in-one point of sale and payments system designed to accept EMV• chip and signature, mag stripe and contactless payments like Apple Pay•. It provides end-to-end encryption and data tokenization to help protect your customers and business from fraud.

Compliance isn’t just a good idea, it’s required. If you have any questions about PCI, EMV or your POS, or would like to learn more about how First Data and Clover Solutions can help, please contact a First Data Business Consultant at 888.853.8499 or visit www.firstdatapartners.com/CRA.

*This article was originally published by First Data. © 2017 First Data Corporation.