Avoiding Data Theft With A POS System In A Clothing Store

Avoiding Data Theft With A POS System In A Clothing Store

There is always a scope of innovation in the fashion industry, which keeps evolving with latest designs and retailers on course. The asking demand is sufficient to keep any cloth retailer busy for most part of the year. Given the competition to survive in the industry, it becomes imperative to stay updated with latest tools to ensure customer security and satisfaction. Their day-to-day business practices should incorporate strong technology in place, and there are many reasons why retailers prefer to have an electronic POS system in a clothing store.

Data Security Is A Must

Irrespective of the fact whether you operate online or from a brick-and-mortar location, a data breach can happen anytime and anywhere, no matter what the size is. Small businesses often become the soft target, but it can easily be avoided with a proper POS system in place. Here’s how it helps in protecting customer’s information, while also making your business safe to transact with!

Tokenization Support

Sensitive information can be protected with tokenization. The best example for this is ApplePay, which is used to ensure customer data safety. Instead of encryption, a one-time use code is employed in this case, with the switch occurring on the customer’s end. This way, the retailer never encounters customer’s information such as card verification value, billing address, card number or expiration. After travelling through the network to the customer’s bank, the token is converted back into data and used to deny or authorize payments.

Meeting The Latest Security Standards

Suppliers should strictly be adhering to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, as a guideline created by 5 major credit card brands- American Express, Discover, JBC International, Visa and Mastercard to keep the information secure. Using a POS system compliant with this is a must for a clothing store.

Using End-To-End Encryption

Encryption is done to make data completely unreadable for the third party. Before being sent through a network, the information is encrypted, followed by decryption on reaching the destination. Since there is no central management of the practice, the process of decryption and encryption can happen several times as the information travels from POS device to acquiring bank. This provides a scope for the hackers to get into the act. There is no insecurity as such with end-to-end encryption, which secures payment information straight from the POS system. This way, it is never available to hackers.

Working With Latest Software

Software developers keep updating their applications just like the PCI Security Standards Council updates their guidelines. It can be painful for clothing retailers to install updates, but the process is very important for safe functioning of the application. Updates are released by the developers to address security concerns and to fix bugs, which is vital for any software.

Maintenance of payment security is a daunting task, but a proper POS system can ease some work. With the latest security standards, tokenization support, latest software and E2E encryption, retail stores can easily shun facing data theft, thus guarding consumer’s interests, privacy and security.