As a credit card merchant you are mandated to protect your customers data which is not a trivial undertaking. Use the following resources to jump start your knowledge of credit card security issues.
The PCI Security Standards Council
This organization controls how credit card security should work. In their own words, "The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection".
Find them at: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/
The Facts about PCI Software Validations by DCRS Solutions
DCRS Solutions is one of our sister Micros dealerships and an industry leader in both Retail and Hospitality POS (http://www.dcrs.com/). They have written an excellent primer on PCI-DSS, how it came about and where it is going.
Hackers Pick on the Small Guys by James Bickers
A short article explaining how the trend of credit card breaches is moving away from the large merchants who have embraced effective credit card security to the easier targets at the small merchant sites. This is bad news for the independent business owners and an alert to protect your customer's credit cards.
Payment Card Data Security for the Restaurant Industry. A white paper from Ambiron TrustWave
Trustwave is one of the few companies throughout the world certified by the credit card brands to perform the full range of solutions – from compliance validation to incident response to point-of-sale security (https://www.trustwave.com/). This in depth article discusses credit card breaches in the restaurant industry and list "best practices" to avoid breaches.
RSPA Project PCI. An educational video produced by the Retail Solutions Providers Association
See an interview with a small restaurant operator who actually had to suffer through a credit card data breach and all the fallout afterwards.
Part 1
Part 2
