According to the FBI’s Cyber Crime Division, cyber intrusions are becoming more commonplace, more dangerous, and more sophisticated. So has cyber crime in the hospitality industry. Hackers are determined (and adept) at putting you, your guests, and your employees at risk and pilfering corporate/payment and identity, infiltrating systems infrastructures, and the like.

Our team is digging into: Why cybersecurity matters in food and beverage industry. We are invested in helping clients safeguard their networks from cyber vulnerability. We’ve delved into balancing new technologies with tradition, but now we take technology a step further: to safeguarding restaurant cybersecurity and food cyber systems.

Get Your Team Onboard. Communicate the importance of restaurant cybersecurity. Establish company-wide cyber protective practices for all to follow, every day. Hire IT security professionals or consultants to establish best practices. Clearly define procedures. Email policies to employees. Post on premises for all to see.

Show & Tell. Suspicious email address or attachment? Does a title, tagline, or layout not match your company’s style? Is the language not compatible with your company’s voice? From fonts to templates to attachments to voice, provide clear examples of company style, reinforcing at every opportunity, for staff to immediately recognize something suspicious.

*A great Show & Tell test: remind staffers to always expand the ‘From’ email address to reveal the ‘From’ name and expanded email address. This practice will immediately expose a suspicious/scam/unrecognizable email address.

Open Door Policy. Create an open door atmosphere. Talk about the how’s & why’s of cybersecurity. Establish a company IT point person and encourage staff to forward suspicious emails, messages, vendor attachments, and anything that looks suspect. Establish a safe environment where staffers can approach without reproach.

Use Preventative Technology. Investigate available protective measures to safeguard your systems and implement them. To begin, the FBI Cyber Crime Division recommends:

• Keeping your firewall turned on. Protect from would-be hackers by installing firewall software, which usually comes prepackaged on network operating systems or can be purchased for individual use.
• Installing antivirus (and antispyware) software to protect against corruptsoftware/codes. Most antivirus software, such as Malware, can be programmed to update automatically.
• Keeping Operating Systems Up to Date. Regularly install updates to ensure your computer has the latest protection.

Stay Vigilant. For successful restaurant cybersecurity, consistency is crucial. Install a strong password policy (and have staff update regularly). Limit access to software/systems/download ability that are of concern. Make turning off one’s computer, in order to thwart unwanted access, standard policy… all practices that’ll go a long way.