HP Innovation Journal Special Edition: Retail Transformation | Page 35
WITH DATA BREACHES ON THE RISE,
HP POINT OF SALE SYSTEMS
OFFER PROTECTION
AARON WEISS
Vice President and General Manager,
Retail Solutions Business Unit, HP
DAVID GOSMAN
Global Hospitality Segment Manager, HP
A point of sale system is unlike any other piece of technol-
ogy employed by businesses. It is a sophisticated computer
system that manages sensitive customer data in a public
space, often accessible by a large number of employees, in
addition to customers or anyone else in the area. Because
of this, it’s a unique target for compromised data. Plus, its
mission-critical nature means compromised systems can
bring a business to a halt, resulting in lost business.
sale systems: they must be versatile enough to be deployed
anywhere and interact with a high volume of customers,
but also secure enough to safely conduct transactions and
repel any attacks.
Most importantly, if your devices aren’t secure, they
can be a major disruption to the business.
INCREASED CONNECTIVITY,
INCREASED VULNERABILITY
It is estimated that organizations have a
one-in-four chance of experiencing a data breach 1 .
Within the business space, it’s estimated that 89 percent
of retail data breaches were targeted at point of sale sys-
tems, according to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Report 2 .
At HP, data integrity is of utmost importance, and we have
prioritized advanced security in our technology at every
step of the design process.
Point of sale devices are targets for attack precisely
because they are so versatile in the business environ-
ment. They’re instrumental to processing transactions,
and multi-purposed to be deployed in multiple locations
within a store or placed at any location within a property.
That omnipresence makes securing devices and prevent-
ing attacks even more important because there is a higher
potential for attempted data theft in public spaces that
are not always monitored. This is the duality of point of
In a modern retail space or hospitality environment, there
are more systems communicating than ever—which in
turn creates more opportunities for a potential breach.
Restaurants take online orders, retail stores receive online
orders for click and collect, and hotels hold reservation
information that’s booked online—while all three of
these systems interact with loyalty programs containing
historical customer data. This increased cloud connectiv-
ity extends far beyond point of sale systems—stores are
increasingly embracing IoT technology such as a con-
nected HVAC system—which only increases the number
of potential entry points.
If we take the order process for a store as an example, per-
sonal information is captured for every online order, whether
shipped to home or held for pickup. Online food ordering
requires location data and personal information transferred
to a machine in-store. Purchases can be connected to loy-
alty plans or social media, giving retailers access to even
more information about customers. This allows for useful
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