Cross-Property Compliance Program Secures Payments Across 54 Locations
With company ownership of Casa Ole, Crazy Jose’s, Mission Burrito and several other brands, Mexican Restaurants, Inc. (MRI) is responsible for securing all 54 company owned locations and the networks they operate on.
MRI’s IT Director, Greg Church, maintained an all in-house data security and a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance program for the corporate office and all of the restaurants. Although a skilled, technical professional, Church is not a PCI security expert and the initiative to achieve PCI compliance far exceeded his available resources and mandated timeframe.
“It became too much for us, and it was not practical to try and do everything,” Church said. “We managed to impress upon upper management the importance of being fully compliant.”
The recent increase in retail credit card data breaches has struck a chord with many merchants like MRI. It is clear that hackers are targeting locations with understaffed or over-burdened IT departments, hoping that security will be lax. In the case of MRI, there was a centrally managed IT department comprised of just two individuals for all 54 locations.
Church recognized that his PCI security goals would be best met by an outsourced solution (instead of an in house IT overhaul) that would protect their network appropriately. “I always had some fear in the back of my head because I know that any system can be breached as long as someone is willing to go through the effort to do so,” Church reveals when asked why he favored an outsourcing solution.
MRI needed an easy and scalable way to implement a PCI compliance and security solution. The ideal offering would be a single source PCI compliance provider that would allow Church to leverage his technical expertise with a comprehensive plan to meet the PCI standard.
MRI turned to VendorSafe to aide in the process. VendorSafe was able to offer an inexpensive solution that optimized the existing security and implemented several different features. VendorSafe has taken over the arduous undertaking of data security and PCI compliance. This has given Mexican Restaurants Inc., peace of mind and allows the company’s brands to focus on what they do best -- make great Mexican food.
VendorSafe delivers a scalable solution that meets and exceeds many of the requirements for Level 1 through Level 4. Vendor Safe Technologies continues to provide Managed Virtual Private Networks (VPN) for enterprises, as well as deploying a proprietary platform enabling end users to deploy networks. Another attractive selling point for Church was that with more than twenty years of experience in network security, VendorSafe boasts a record of zero data breaches and provides a $100,000.00 TrustVault Guarantee against a data breach.
“I have been tremendously pleased with the responsiveness that I have gotten with the company,” Church explains. “I love the additional services that VendorSafe offers like internal testing.” VendorSafe Technologies also provides educational resources for business owners looking to educate themselves on this increasing cyber trend.
Church also appreciates that VendorSafe is a one-stop-shop. “We don’t have to deal with any other companies,” he admits.
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