How to protect cybersecurity at your restaurant

October is National Cybersecurity Month, and the National Restaurant Association is aiming to educate everyone about online threats and promote tech-based best practices to protect your business. 

Our goal is to reduce risks and enhance cyber safety and ensure that restaurants and their employees are trained to recognize and respond to potential cyberattacks. Being prepared could minimize the impact of such an event and prevent cyber criminals from gaining access to sensitive information that could hurt your business and your customers.

3 tips to start with

Where can you start? Here are three tips:

1. Implement strong cybersecurity practices, like training staff to handle phishing and data 
2. Secure your networks, and use strong passwords and multi-factor authentication on all accounts
3. Regularly update your software and implement PCI compliant secure payment processing, encrypt your sensitive data, and regularly back up data to a secure offsite location. 

When training your employees, make sure you focus on showing them how to effectively manage cybersecurity threats. They should know how to recognize phishing emails, suspicious calls, and malware threats. Also, limit access to sensitive information and systems based on job roles to prevent unauthorized access. Be sure to review access permissions periodically and update user access levels—especially when your employees change roles or leave the company. 

Employing technical safeguards

Using technical safeguards, such as firewalls, encryption, multi-factor authentication, and other controls, can help prevent hackers from getting in and limit damage if they do, like protect sensitive data from being stolen or altered. The following safeguards can reduce the chance of costly breaches and keep your business running smoothly:

• Use strong passwords and MFA: Enforce strong, unique passwords for all accounts and enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) for an extra layer of security 
• Secure your Wi-Fi: Separate your guest and internal Wi-Fi networks and use strong encryption (like WPA3) for both 
• Keep software updated: Regularly update all software, firmware, and security patches on your systems to close vulnerabilities 
• Install firewalls and antivirus software: Deploy firewalls and antivirus software to defend against malware and other threats 
• Encrypt sensitive data: Encrypt customer payment information and other sensitive data to render it unreadable if stolen 
• Regularly back up data: Schedule automatic backups of critical data and store them offsite or in secure cloud storage to protect against ransomware attacks. 

Vendor and system management

Vendors and technology systems are often the hidden gateways into a restaurant business’s data. Point-of-sale terminals, delivery platforms, loyalty apps, payment processors, and even HVAC systems, may be managed by outside providers. If those vendors have weak security or outdated software, cybercriminals can exploit them to access your customer payment data or business information. Proactive vendor and system management—screening suppliers for security practices, enforcing contractual security standards, patching and updating systems, and revoking unused access—closes those gaps. Doing this protects cardholder data, keeps operations running, and helps maintain customer trust and regulatory compliance. Here are some protective measures to employ:

• Vet third-party vendors: Ensure your vendors or third-party services follow industry-standard security practices 
• Secure POS systems: Regularly update and secure your point-of-sale (POS) terminals to prevent data skimming and malware infections 
• Monitor for suspicious activity: Use security tools to monitor your systems for unusual activity that could indicate a cyberattack 

Create an incident response plan

By creating a cybersecurity incident response plan, you give your restaurant a playbook to use if or when something goes wrong. Even with good security, breaches, ransomware, or payment-card skimming can still occur. Without a plan, every minute of confusion increases damage, costs, and loss of customer trust. Having a written, tested plan means your staff knows exactly who to call, what to do, how to contain the problem, how to notify customers or regulators, and how to restore systems quickly. This minimizes downtime, limits financial loss, keeps you compliant with payment-card and privacy rules, and shows customers that you take their data seriously.

For more information on cybersecurity measures for the foodservice industry, download the National Restaurant Association’s Digital Security 101 and 201 Guides to Protecting Restaurant Data.