If you’ve been reading the AVPS blog for the past few months, you know that we’re firm believers that mobile processing can boost efficiency. However, we also know how many small business owners feel about change or incurring a new cost. With the busy holiday season behind us, now is the perfect time to take stock and give your operational performance a check-up.
Category: secure payment processing
Breaches Predicted; Help is Coming
The CIO website is rife with predictions on coming cyber threats and data breaches for the coming year, laid out across several different articles. In one on Five Data Breach Predictions for 2017, they list, among the quintet of threats, a “focus on payment-based attacks despite the EMV shift taking place over a year ago.”
Discover Wireless Payment Solutions
If you are planning a significant remodeling project for your business, you probably face a common dilemma: Should you close for the duration, or should you attempt to remain open during construction? While remaining open is ideal for keeping financial continuity, it also creates its own set of challenges. You need to maintain a safe, functional environment for your customers while also adjusting to an operation that will feel like it’s in constant upheaval.
Small Scale Start-Ups Mobile Credit Card Processing
For many people, this time of year brings out that inner-yearning they have for taking their entrepreneurial ideas to the next level. They want to start a business but are hesitant to jump into a significant investment when they have so little experience. However, at AVPS, we believe that the best businesses come from passionate people who scaled their operations smartly. In our incredibly unique economy, they have the ability to explore unusual business models that allow them to give their ideas a proverbial test drive without
overextending themselves financially.
Credit Card Processing Risk Management Solutions
As we head into the throes of the holiday season, you are preparing your business for the current influx of customers. You’re focused on inventory, logistics, customer service and maybe even extending your business hours to accommodate the growing crowds. However, for thieves and hackers around the country, this season also represents one of the easiest times to take advantage of your distracted state. Where you see
profit potential, they see the perfect opportunity to take money away from you and your customers and put it in their own pockets.
Protect Your Customers During the Busy Season By Focusing on Secure Transactions
During this high-traffic season, businesses across the country will be more vulnerable than ever to hackers seeking to steal their customers’ financial information. Because of this, businesses need to take special care to ensure that they are providing the most secure payment processing possible. At AVPS, we believe that businesses need to make this a top priority, not only for their customers’ safety but for the sake of their own reputation
How Fraud Affects Your Customers and Why You Need EMV Processing
Chip cards, as consumers typically refer to them, are now the standard for secure payments. They help reduce fraud, and give your customers an added layer of protection. We know that upgrading your equipment to offer this increased level of credit card transaction security can be frustrating, but let’s take a look at what happens to a customer when he or she is the victim of card fraud.
PCI Develops Payment Security Resources For Small Businesses
As their recent press announcement puts it: “small businesses around the world are increasingly at risk for payment data theft. Nearly half of cyber attacks worldwide in 2015 were against small businesses with less than 250 workers, according to cybersecurity firm Symantec.”
And now, to try and help these smaller companies shore up their defenses, the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), whose security protocols and recommendations we report on here, on a recurring basis, have now set up a Small Merchant Task force which has developed a set of payment protection resources for those same businesses.
Ongoing EMV Processing Transition. Is Your Business Letting Misinformation Cloud Your Decision-Making?
In a recent blog, we asked an AVPS colleague to report on how a variety of businesses in her area were adapting to the required transition toward EMV chip card processing. As we’ve reported extensively, EMV chip cards are now considered the accepted standard for secure payment processing. While her experiences highlighted the rocky transition that even national retailers face during this migration, it also highlighted how even the smallest local businesses have easily converted to EMV.
Scam Alert, Pt. II: How to Protect Against Skimmers
Last week, we mentioned a rash of phony invoices that are being sent by companies alleging to help with EMV upgrades, along with some preliminary advice on how to be aware of whether skimmers were being placed on the POS devices at your business.
