Tag Archives: Point of Sale Systems

Mobile Technology Trends for 2021

Mobile Technology Trends for 2021

Mobile technology continually improves and 2021 is bound to see some of the greatest changes. As we move into another year of living with social distancing, consumers want contactless payments and more capabilities from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Mobile Wallet Security

It’s not enough to offer mobile wallet payment options next year. While customers want contactless payments, they also want security. Double authentication with mobile wallet payments is crucial.

Rather than just scanning the payment, users will need to enter a PIN or use the facial recognition feature. While it’s another step in the payment process, it’s still touchless and it decreases the risk of fraudulent charges.

Mobile Point of Sale

The Apple store used to be one of the only places you’d find a mobile ‘register.’ Today because of the need to have contactless payments and a way to get in and out of a store fast, mobile point of sale is more common everywhere.

mPOS units are great inside a store, checking customers out where they are rather than making them stand in line. Even big stores like Target are doing this. But, mPOS also helps merchants sell their products anywhere – farmer’s markets, trade shows, or mobile trucks.

Increased Use of AR and VR

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are becoming more mainstream for all industries, not just by technical companies. Healthcare companies travel, and educational companies are taking advantage too. They also provide more opportunities for companies to increase sales without seeing customers in the physical store.

Increased use of Chatbots

No one likes to sit on hold waiting for a customer service representative. Chatbots are making it easier than ever to answer customer questions instantly. This is just what customers want. In addition to everything mobile and touchless, they want instant answers without wasting time sitting on hold. Chatbots answer the most frequently asked questions quickly and if they can’t answer the question, they pass the customer onto a human advisor.

Social Shopping

There’s a reason social media influencers are the ‘big thing’ right now. Everyone wants what everyone else, which is why the rise in social shopping is so great. With the ability to scroll through Instagram or Facebook and buy what you see others buying, it increases sales quickly. Social shopping decreases the lag time between seeing an item and finding it in store or even online. It uses that instant gratification that customers love, making it easy to make impulse buys or just buy products/services they wanted while they’re thinking about it.

Mobile Technology is Making Changes

2021 is bound to be a year of big changes in the mobile technology industry. With possibilities abound, merchants can make the most of the opportunities to serve customers where and how they want service. With the ability to offer mobile and contactless payments, shopping opportunities, and even sales demonstrations, 2021 should be a year of promise and growth for merchants in all industries.

Oracle MICROS Hackers

Oracle MICROS Hackers Also Hacked 5 Other Companies

Leave a reply

American companies that use credit card processing and merchant services are on high alert after a Russian hacking group breached the servers of various POS or point of sale systems.

The first victim of the breach was tech giant Oracle, which in mid-2016 acquired MICROS Systems, a major provider of POS solutions for the retail and hospitality industries.

Cyber-Attack on Oracle MICROS

Following the cyber-attack on Oracle MICROS, five more providers of cash registers reported being hacked by the same Russian crew.

The companies targeted by the hacking group have an important business aspect in common: they all offer cloud cash registers, which are advanced POS or point of sale systems integrated with functions such as employee scheduling, customer relationship management (CRM), credit card processing, marketing intelligence, merchant services, and more.

Security analysts who covered the aforementioned incidents explained that the Russian hackers were specifically looking for individual customer account records, which means that they were trying to get their hands on credit card data. A likely suspect has already been mentioned, the Carbanak Gang.

An initial security investigation indicates that Oracle became aware of the breach when it detected a malicious code in a few servers used by nearly 700 customers. The attack also included a help desk system used by Oracle to provide technical support to clients. This is very concerning because hackers could gain the ability of intercepting service tickets and spoofing support agents.

It is not unusual to see hacking crews such as the Carbanak Gang being suspected of pulling off major cyber heists. Internet security experts have been following this cybercrime group for a while; they believe that this group may be associated with the Bratva, which is the name insiders use to describe the Russian mafia.

It is interesting to note that one of the reasons major cyber-attacks come from Russia is that computer education has major support in public schools and state-funded universities. It is believed that the Russian government often recruits malicious hackers to work as cyber warfare agents.

Data Breach at Wendy’s Expands to Over 1000 Locations

Leave a reply

Data security issues at Wendy’s have now been super-sized.

Following whispers of a data breach in January, Wendy’s finally confirmed payment security issues in May, when spokesmen admitted fewer than 300 stores had been affected by malware. Now, the company admits the real number of compromised restaurants is over 1,000.

Thieves installed malware on POS card terminals to capture card numbers, cardholder names, verifications values, expiration dates, service codes and other critical data. Wendy’s stated that CVV codes were not at risk. The malware has been called “highly sophisticated in nature and extremely difficult to detect.”

The initial claim of fewer than 300 affected stores was cast into doubt by reports from card issuers that fraudulent charge volume indicated a far larger distribution throughout the chain’s 5,800 U.S. locations. Wendy’s states that the attack came in two separate waves, making it difficult to determine the total size of the data breach when it was first detected. Investigators first determined the scope as only 300 locations, only to be hit by a second, mutated strain of the malware soon thereafter.

The attack appears to have been the result of compromised security credentials used for remote access by third-party POS service companies. These companies are often hired by franchisees to manage POS systems in their restaurants, and most access them remotely. Of the 5,800 Wendy’s restaurants in the U.S., only about 630 are owned and operated by Wendy’s itself, with the remainder in the hands of local franchise owners. None of the company-owned stores have been implicated in the data breach.

In response to their discovery of the larger scale of the breach, Wendy’s has compiled a searchable database of affected locations. This database is accessible to customers on the company website.

The affected locations had not yet moved to the use of EMV chip cards. Gavin Waugh, vice president and treasurer at The Wendy’s Company, believes that the attack might not have been prevented by use of EMV. Wendy’s declined to provide a timetable for the completion of the rollout of EMV to their network of restaurants.

Gartner Group analyst Avivah Litan states that although many locations have received and installed EMV-capable terminals, not all have activated them. She acknowledged that there is a backlog of requests at the companies who certify EMV readiness for merchants ready to move to the new standard.