Franchised Restaurants Require Excellent IT Service

As if the restaurant business isn’t hard enough already…

In 2015 and 2016, cyber criminals successfully attacked the POS systems of over a 1,000 franchised Wendy’s locations. The 3-year data breach saga came to an end last week, with Wendy’s entering into a $50 million settlement with the thousands of financial institutions affected by the compromise.

Importantly, this painfully costly breach could have been avoided. Wendy’s statement indicated that the attack “resulted from a service provider’s remote access credentials being compromised, allowing access – and the ability to deploy malware – to some franchisees’ POS systems.”

Every compromised restaurant was owned by a franchisee. These franchise owners have no choice but to rely on their partners and vendors. Unfortunately, these hard-working men and women were let down by their MSP.

The restaurant industry is a prime target of attackers. The demanding work environments make cyber security missteps easy, often granting an attacker access to tons of valuable credit card data.

Choosing a strong MSP is critical. INFIMA partners with these customer-obsessed MSPs to train end users on security risks and the safe behaviors to avoid calamity. Additionally, we value our Partners’ own security, which is why all employees of MSPs in our Partner Program receive our full suite of services for free.

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