Credit card hacking. This past month has shown us that even global corporations like Target and Neiman Marcus struggle with this issue. What can merchants do to avoid risking your customer's credit?As small businesses, we have to do everything possible to keep our customer's credit card information as safe as we can. Not only is it good for building confidence in our business, but it's the right and the responsible thing to do. Our customers count on us for providing safety and security, and we need to earn that continued confidence.The IT world is ever-changing and hackers always seem to find a way, but there are many things we can do to make their attempts much more difficult. Choice Promotional Products consulted Donna Broder of Card Solutions for some expert advice:There are many things a small business owner can do to protect themselves and their customers:Make sure their employees look at the card. Check for signatures. If there's no signature, ask them to sign the card in front of them and request to see two forms of ID, one being government issued, to verify signatures.Make sure it looks like a real card. Thieves are cheap and won't have holograms etc.Verify the last 4 digits on the front of the card match the last four digits that print on the receipt. Many stolen numbers are re-encoded on the thief's own card. So the name and card number on the front will not match the card number that is encoded and going through your system.Make sure, as a small business owner, that you are PCI compliant. Now you know why it's so important. If using a terminal, the chances of being non-compliant are slim. But having the certificate will help cut down on any financial loss due to being hacked. If you're using a POS system, it will do a scan of your system and will locate and highlight any potential open portals or insecure connections that a hacker can come through.NEVER save or store any credit card information of your customers. If you need to do reoccurring charges or re-billing of a regular customer, purchase a gateway/software that is authorized to store that information securely for you.Never allow your employees to walk out of sight with a customer's card. That is giving an employee an opportunity to either skim the card or write down the pertinent information needed to use the customer's card without them knowing it.We have been fortunate to have never had an issue with a customer's card, but will continue to follow advice like Donna's. Does your business already have these steps in place? If not, today is the day to start.* You can visit Donna's site here: http://www/cardsolutions.us
