POS Security for Productivity

You lock your door every night when you leave your store right?  You secure all your cash and any valuable items before leaving your store unattended, don't you?

Then why would you leave your computer system, and your point of sale in particular, unprotected?  Viruses and spyware are the MOST COMMON threats to a computer system that is connected to the internet, but this obvious threat is often ignored. 

What's more, anti-virus and spyware protection is the cheapest and easiest security to put in place, and it typically self-updates, making maintenance a breeze.  Why would you leave your point of sale system open to internet based attacks when the system holds your valuable data and represents one of your most powerful customer service tools?

Don't think because you're a small store that no one is out to get you either.  First of all, most viruses and spyware aren't initiated by malicious directed attacks, they're downloaded unwittingly by users browsing sites they shouldn't be.  Thus, it's crucial that you have a good anti-virus software, and train your employees (or setup a firewall with restricted access) to not browse the web from the POS.

Second, hackers know that your store isn't really Fort Knox in terms of the potential gain from stealing from you, but they also know it's not Fort Knox in terms of security.  Hackers are increasingly targeting smaller operations due to the relative ease of accessing your secure data.  Never assume you're too small to be noticed or hacked.

Do yourself a favor and check your anti-virus software today.  If you don't have a good system in place, now's the time to fix it.