How To Manage Your Online Reputation
How To Manage Your Online Reputation
You’ve spent a lot of time building up your reputation and image both online and off, so it’s important to make sure that someone isn’t out there dragging it through the mud. The latest tool for reputation management is Trackur, but its bottom-level price is $88/month, so the question on my mind, is: “Is it worth it?” There are already many different ways to monitor your online reputation as it is. Let’s see how they stack up.
Managing Your Small Business’s Online Reputation
How are your social media skills and what are your plans? -JIM
“Social media for business now is life or death,” said Dan Simons, a restaurateur in the Washington area who closely monitors these forums. “You could open a business and do everything right, but if you’re unaware of these social media you will perish. Social media can take a business and put a bullet in it.”
via Managing Your Small Business’s Online Reputation – NYTimes.com.
Securing Bricks and Clicks for Small Merchants
Having worked with the author of this article in the past I value highly his opinion on the topic of small business data security. Read the article and see what I mean! -Jim
As many ISOs now understand, small merchants are big business: There are 6 million small businesses in the U.S., defined as those with fewer than 100 employees. These privately owned corporations, partnerships or sole proprietorships account for $350 billion in financial services and product revenue annually.
87% have fewer than 5 employees, and many have developed an online presence to compete with larger businesses. However, these small merchants are vulnerable to data security breaches: Visa says that 85% of reported compromises come from level 4 (low transaction volume) merchants, and less than 10% of merchants in this category have validated compliance with PCI DSS. Compliance mandates for these merchants are less strict, yet the consequences of a breach in terms of fines and lost business is every bit as onerous. How can ISOs help these merchants to mitigate risk without significant costs? We’ll look at some simple suggestions to help small merchants, both with theirin-store (“bricks”), and their online (“clicks”) transactions.
FTC Announces Expanded Business Education Campaign on ‘Red Flags’ Rule
The Red Flags Rule is an anti-fraud regulation, requiring “creditors” and “financial institutions” with covered accounts to implement programs to identify, detect, and respond to the warning signs, or “red flags,” that could indicate identity theft. The financial regulatory agencies, including the FTC, developed the Rule, which was mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA). FACTA’s definition of “creditor” includes any entity that regularly extends or renews credit – or arranges for others to do so – and includes all entities that regularly permit deferred payments for goods or services. Accepting credit cards as a form of payment does not, by itself, make an entity a creditor. “Financial institutions” include entities that offer accounts that enable consumers to write checks or make payments to third parties through other means, such as other negotiable instruments or telephone transfers.
via FTC Announces Expanded Business Education Campaign on ‘Red Flags’ Rule.
PCI Compliance Only the Start of Security
“Any business foolish enough to simply make ‘compliance’ their only security goal has made a serious, and sometimes fatal, mistake,” opined Michael Maloof, CTO of TriGeo Network Security. “Companies have embraced the intent of the regulations and have accepted the responsibility to secure their networks, train their employees and maintain a state of vigilance to ensure their systems remain secure. Other companies see PCI as yet another tax on their businesses and do everything they can to pay as little as possible—that is, until they are forced to pay for the consequences.”
Project PCI – Retail Solutions Providers Association
Project PCI is RSPA’s outreach program to help educate and provide direction to our members about Payment Card Industry Security Compliance. RSPA offers information on a wide-range of topics concerning PCI Compliance.
If Compromised | Merchants | Visa USA
If Compromised
Taking immediate action
Merchants and service providers that have experienced a suspected or confirmed security breach must take immediate action to help prevent additional damage and adhere to Visa CISP requirements.
Loss or theft of account information
Members, service providers or merchants must immediately report the suspected or confirmed loss or theft of any material or records that contain Visa cardholder data.
If a member knows or suspects a security breach with a merchant or service provider, the member must take immediate action to investigate the incident and limit the exposure of cardholder data.
If a Visa member fails to immediately notify Visa Inc. Fraud Control of the suspected or confirmed loss or theft of any Visa transaction information, the member will be subject to a penalty of $100,000 per incident.
Members are subject to fines, up to $500,000 per incident, for any merchant or service provider that is compromised and not compliant at the time of the incident.
PCI Compliance fines for small business breaches
# Since 2005, more than 80% of the credit card breaches have occurred at small businesses.
# Since October of 2006, Visa has levied $3.3 million in fines for non compliance.
# MasterCard did not disclose their fines but I bet Robin could find them!
# Lodi Beer, a microbrewery and restaurant in California had unknowingly stored 11,728 credit card records in their point of sale system. Track data from the credit card’s magnetic strip cannot be stored. When that data was breached, Visa and MasterCard fined Abanco, the restaurant’s merchant account provider, $27,000. Abanco then in turn passed that fine onto the restaurant. In addition to the fines, this merchant has spent over $50,000 in remediation costs, legal fees, upgrades, etc. That is a huge amount of money for a small business.
via PCI Compliance fines for small business breaches – Braintree Payment Solutions.
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