Why PCI Compliance Is Important

PCI Compliance has (to me) seemed like a pretty big boogeyman over the years. Like a method for credit card processors to enact higher rates on businesses who aren’t following very specific and esoteric rules for data encyrption. Data security is vital in business, especially when it’s customer data like credit cards and addresses and such. But a lot of the rules always felt like overkill.
After hearing about a restaurant chain in Boston being fined $110,000 for a data breach, I can see why PCI Compliance is going to be more and more important. The business in question had malicious software unknowingly installed onto one of their PC’s, giving a third party access to credit and debit card info. The software wasn’t detected for 8 months, including the holiday season, so a lot of customer data could have been lifted.
Massachusetts has one of the strictest data breach policies in the country, as well as the most difficult to spell name, but it doesn’t take away the fact that this business could’ve taken meager steps to eliminate this problem. Antivirus/Antimalware software could have probably caught this issue quickly, but an even better step would be to limit employee access to the web on payment terminals. If they can’t connect to malicious sites, they can’t download malicious code. And if it comes from someone installing software from portable media, you have a bigger issue at your business than PCI Compliance.
However, if your merchant account provider can swing it, a really easy way to secure customer credit and debit data is to get an encrypted credit card reader, like MagTek’s Centurion. The reader is programmed by your credit card processor and uses hardware in the device itself to encrypt card data, which is decrypted by the processor upstream. So now even if your computer is festooned with malware, viruses, trojans, and every other piece of horrific software, all they can get is gibberish. Hard to commit fraud with gibberish.

MMF Cash Drawer Video Review

We’ve got a full bullpen of video reviewers. It’s pretty amazing. This time Travis is dropping a knowledge bomb regarding MMF’s cash drawers, specifically the Advantage and Val-u Line drawers. The Advantage is a heavy duty drawer, with some extra security features and the ability to hold up to some gnarly environments. The Val-u line is not as heavy duty, but still pretty beefy. Cash drawers have to hold your money, so even the cheapest ones on the market are still strong and secure. Also I said duty twice up in there.

Honeywell Voyager 1200g Video Review

We’ve got a video up from Jessie, our grand new video reviewer. This time we’re taking the Honeywell Voyager 1200g for a spin, and trying our best to recreate the video they made of the scanner reading nasty and scratched out barcodes.

Epson TM-T88V Video Review

The Epson TM-T88V is the current fastest receipt printer on the earth, so we wanted to get a video together to really show the difference between it and the ReadyPrint T20. Props to Jaime for coming out unscathed.

Honeywell Hyperion 1300g

Hyperion, Greek Titan, son of Gaea and Uranus (haha), is also a new scanner. Honeywell’s Hyperion 1300g barcode scanner is their newest offering and a product revision of the old HHP 3800g. The move is an effort to unify their new scanners under one cabling scheme, as right now there are the legacy Metrologic products, the legacy HHP products, and now new Honeywell products, all using their own interface cables.

I started this blog just about the same time we did a video review for the 3800g, so I didn’t go into too much depth on the product. The Hyperion 1300g is designed with retail scanning in mind, but can still hang even in some industrial environments. As a 1D linear imager, the 1300g can read regular UPC barcodes from about half an inch out to 18 inches, so you don’t have to fight with your products just to get a good read. You also get full light immunity with the Hyperion 1300g, making scanning outdoors, on stage, or during an interrogation no sweat.

What really makes the Hyperion 1300g stand out from other barcode scanners in its price range is its durability. There used to be a video on Youtube of the old 3800g being used to hammer a nail, then scan a barcode, and it’s really unfortunate I can’t find it anymore. It’s not like you really want to trash your scanner like that, but it does turn the product into a dual-purpose tool. The 1300g bumps up the durability a little bit, offering an IP41 seal. IP41 means that dirt and some splashes of water won’t get inside the scanner or harm the internals. It’s definitely not an industrial rated seal, but still pretty robust against the odd spill or even general garden center use.

So the big takeaway from all these words is the Honeywell Hyperion 1300g is the 3800g with a different interface cabling system. And for funsies, here’s our video review on the 3800g.

Honeywell Dolphin 6100 Video Review

It’s been a while since the last update, we’ve been cranking out a new catalog to send out to customers and I haven’t had time to share the fanciness that’s been going on at POSGuys. Our fantastic video reviewer, Jaime, has returned to, well, do video reviews. She’s also helping with general site upkeep. Anyway, this is her first video since her return, covering some details on the Honeywell Dolphin 6100 mobile computer.