Atlanta, GA (June 17, 2019) – The Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA) is thrilled to announce the finalists and honorees for the 2019 Georgia Restaurant Association Crystal of Excellence (GRACE) Awards. All finalists are peer-nominated, ensuring the most deserving in the industry are recognized. Winners are chosen by the GRACE Academy, comprised of former GRACE finalists and honorees, as well as current GRA board members.

The GRACE Awards Gala, an exclusive event honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to Georgia’s restaurant industry, will take place at the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta, GA on Sunday, August 11, 2019. At the event, winners for Restaurateur of the Year (Small/Independent and Large/Corporate), Industry Partner of the Year, Diversity Leadership Award and Distinguished Service Award will be announced. The GRA will also honor the Restaurant Employee of the Year, Restaurant Manager of the Year, ProStart Student of the Year, Chairman’s Award recipient and this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Regynald Washington. Washington, who serves as President of the Dining Division at Paradies Lagardère, was recently named the 2019 Gold Plate Award recipient by the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA).

For more details and a complete list of GRACE finalists, visit: https://www.garestaurants.org/grace-awards-gala.html.

About the Georgia Restaurant Association

The GRA’s mission is to serve as the voice for Georgia’s Restaurants in Advocacy, Education and Awareness.  The GRA is sanctioned by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) to operate Georgia’s only not-for-profit representing the state’s foodservice industry. From large chains to start-ups, the GRA helps make Georgia a better place for restaurants to do business and helps make restaurants better for Georgia.

About the GRACE Awards

The GRACE Awards is the Georgia Restaurant Association’s annual black-tie gala event recognizing excellence in Georgia’s Restaurant Industry. The GRACE awards are peer-nominated and honor the top finalists in the following categories: Restaurateur of the Year (Small/Independent, Large/Corporate), Industry Partner of the Year, Diversity Leadership Award and the Distinguished Service Award. The winners are announced at the event and are presented with crystal works of art created by renowned local artist Hans-Godo Frabel.

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   According to the 2017 Verizon Data Breach Report, 43% of                                          all documented breaches involved social engineering.

With over 130 QIR certified technicians, Retail Data Systems invests in knowledge of the PCI compliance requirements through PCI Security Standards Council certification courses. We strive to provide the best service and equipment to meet those requirements, while also working hard to understand new threats our clients face in the cyberworld. Security awareness is one of the very first steps on the road to compliance and a crucial part of protecting your business.

Social engineering scams come in all different shapes and sizes. This works well considering the target of the scams have different levels of experience and education with technology. If you’ve ever taken a look in your email Spam folder, you are likely to see some obvious examples of phishing scam attempts. The most common (and comical) tend to be those from broken English estate lawyers reaching out about a dearly departed and wealthy relative from overseas. Luckily spam filtering exists to weed out emails like this. But as funny as those attempts may seem, the results of successful attempts are far from humorous.

An example of a more elaborate social engineering scheme began after the IRS website was breached back in 2015. Because scammers had gained access to social security numbers and sensitive information on more than 700,000 tax payers, they were able to construct a remarkably sophisticated story, unlike our spam folder friends. These predators used a tool that spoofed their phone number, making it appear  that the call originated from the IRS. Using fake IRS badge numbers, they intimidated their victims with threats of audits, property seizure, and even arrest if “back taxes” were not immediately transferred. They successfully stole money from countless victims, and that money is unrecoverable.

Over the last several years, there has been an increase in social engineering attacks for one reason: they work! As outlined in Security Through Education blog post: Why Attackers Might Use Social Engineering, “Social engineering tactics (especially phishing, vishing, and impersonation) are being used, in conjunction with digital hacking methods to make attacks more effective and inevitably more profitable for attackers.

Because these tactics have worked at such high rates, human error is deemed the largest security threat to any organization. When taking into account the variation in sophistication of social engineering attacks and their end goal, it becomes apparent why cultivating security awareness and protecting proprietary information is so important.

Source: https://www.social-engineer.org/framework/general-discussion/attackers-might-use-social-engineering/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-identity-theft-online-hackers-social-security-number-get-transcript/

PAR Technology Corporation (NYSE:PAR)

FOR RELEASE:  March 9, 2016

Giardino Gourmet Salads Selects Cloud-Based PAR Brink POS® Software to Help Maximize Profits, Loyalty and Operational Efficiency

New Hartford, NY – March 9, 2016 — ParTech Inc. (PAR), a leading global provider of point-of-sale (POS) and food safety solutions to the restaurant industry and subsidiary of PAR Technology Corporation (NYSE: PAR), announced today that Giardino Gourmet Salads, has selected PAR Brink POS software for its corporate and franchised stores. Giardino’s is a premier fast casual salad chain with 12 locations, based in southern Florida. Retail Data Systems (RDS), a reseller of PAR hardware and software and a long-time partner of Giardino’s facilitated the process to find a POS solution that would best serve the needs of their growing brand. The goal was to implement a technology solution that would enable loyalty and online ordering while providing enterprise level management to efficiently and proactively support their franchisees.

The cloud-based architecture of PAR Brink POS optimizes enterprise operation management across the brand, without the need for a back office computer. The implementation of Brink POS has eliminated the need to manage menu changes from each store location, saving valuable time and resources. As a franchisor, Giardino Gourmet Salads will have access to reports and real-time data including labor and sales on individual locations chain-wide to help franchisees make informed, proactive decisions to drive revenue.

Giardino Gourmet Salads is one of the first restaurants to deploy the Punchh mobile loyalty platform that was recently integrated into Brink with the latest software release. The Punchh-powered apps will help the brand drive loyalty and guest engagement and provide powerful analytical tools to grow the business and better understand the full network of its customers.

“We were planning to franchise from the start and never wanted Giardino Gourmet Salads to be a mom-and-pop restaurant, so implementing a scalable technology platform was a priority,” said Kenny Lugo, founder of Giardino Gourmet Salads. “At an industry event, we spoke with loyalty and mobile ordering providers who both highly recommended Brink for our business model. From these interactions and our relationship with RDS, we knew PAR was the right partner for us and that using Brink POS to its fullest potential would give us a pulse on our business from anywhere, supporting our aggressive growth plans.”

“Cutting-edge, cloud-based technology, like Brink POS, offers optimal scalability through its simple deployment and enterprise management capabilities, making it an ideal solution for growing fast casual and quick service chains like Giardino Gourmet Salads,” said Matt Sutton, general manager at RDS Miami. “We believe a partnership, like the one we have with PAR, allows us to provide not only the best solutions, but also smoother installation, more in-depth training and more efficient help desk services for our customers.”

“It is a true example of partnership between PAR, RDS, and our integration partners to provide Giardino Gourmet Salads with a POS solution that will support their business and drive their brand growth,” said Karen Sammon, President and CEO of PAR Technology Corporation. “The selection of PAR Brink POS by Giardino Gourmet Salads, a company that has been included on FastCasual.com’s Top 100 Movers and Shakers list for the past three years, further strengthens our position in the market as the POS solution for the growing fast casual operator. We are honored to add them to the PAR family and grateful to RDS for the continued support and expertise they provide to our collective customers.”

Giardino Gourmet Salads expects to have 14 stores open by the spring of 2016 and franchise commitments to open an additional seven additional locations in South Florida, Nashville, TN and Raleigh, NC.

About Giardino Gourmet Salads

Giardino Gourmet Salads is the premier fast casual salad concept in South Florida. Founded in 2004, the gardener chefs at Giardino serve the widest variety of individually hand-crafted, great-tasting salads and menu offerings using premium ingredients like freshly baked croutons and homemade deli salads. Currently with 11 South Florida locations and one in Nashville, TN, please visit http://www.giardinosalads.com for more information.

About PAR Technology Corporation

PAR Technology Corporation’s stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PAR.  PAR’s Hospitality segment has been a leading provider of restaurant and retail technology for more than 30 years.  PAR offers technology solutions for the full spectrum of restaurant operations, from large chain and independent table service restaurants to international quick service chains. Products from PAR also can be found in retailers, cinemas, cruise lines, stadiums and food service companies. PAR’s Government Business is a leader in providing computer-based system design, engineering and technical services to the Department of Defense and various federal agencies.  Visit http://www.partech.com for more information.

About Retail Data Systems

Retail Data Systems is the largest provider of point-of-sale hardware and software in North America. Founded in 1950, RDS now operates over 25 offices serving customers across the nation providing complete point of sale technology.

Our list of industry leading POS hardware and software products provide a variety of solutions for companies large and small. For more information, visit www.rdspos.com.

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An Issue You Will Need to Deal With Sooner Than Later – Microsoft Windows XP Embedded‘s End of Life is in January.

XP Embedded, the workhorse of the modern Point of Sale age is going away.  After a more than 14 year run, extended support for the product is ending.  The reason?  Vulnerabilities in older encryption protocols such as TLS 1 will no longer be supported by Microsoft as they cannot get them to new standards on Windows XP based operating systems.  This will essentially render all systems with the XP operating system to be non-PCI compliant effective January 13, 2016.

Included in this group are:

• Microsoft Windows Embedded XP

Not updating your POS system to a compliant operating system will put your POS environment in violation of PCI compliance in at least 3 areas (quoted from PCI DSS v3: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/PCI_DSS_v3-1.pdf):

• “6.2 Ensure that all system components and software are protected from known vulnerabilities by installing applicable vendor-supplied security patches.”
• “11.2.1 Perform quarterly internal vulnerability scans and rescans as needed, until all “high-risk” vulnerabilities (as identified in Requirement 6.1) are resolved.”
• “11.3.3 Exploitable vulnerabilities found during penetration testing are corrected and testing is repeated to verify the corrections

This means if you are running a POS system with Windows XP, you have to do something now.   Please contact us (http://www.rdspos.com) for an assessment on if your environment is at risk.

By Patrick Solum

RDS Southeast has about 20 restaurant customers in the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Recently, we invited one of our restaurant group customers to install Restaurant Guard by NCR Hosted Solutions. With Restaurant Guard installed for only two weeks, yesterday we were told that our customer had caught three employees stealing red-handed and fired them!

Two employees immediately confessed and the third denied the charges but RG reports and video surveillance confirmed all three were thieves.  Police escorted the three out of the airport and charges are pending.

The scam the thieves were using was the “Reprint” scam. When a guest would order a common menu item like “Combo Number Two” and pay cash, the employees would reprint several copies of the receipt. Then, whenever another guest would come along later and order the same menu item the cashier would ring in the sale and hand the guest the pre-printed receipt. After the guest paid and walked away with their food, the cashier would simply clear/delete the items on the ticket without ever completing the sale. The $8.00 cash would go right in the cashier’s pocket!

Here’s the Astronomical effect of this “petty” theft:

Combo meal price:          $8.00

Reprint Scam if used only 5 times a day = ($8 x 5 times a day) = $40 a day

20 restaurants in the airport. Be conservative and say it only happens in half of them…

10 restaurants = ($40 a day x 10 restaurants) = $400 a day

7 days a week= (7 days x $400) = $2,800 a week

50 weeks a year = (50 weeks x $2,800) = $140,000 a year!!!!!    This restaurant group was losing over $140,000 in revenue a year to theft!
Restaurant Guard Price: $125 a month per location x 10 stores = $1,250 a month

$1,250 a month (10 stores) x 12 months = $15,000 a year.

Pay $15,000 a year to get $140,000 increase in sales? Not a bad investment! Remember also, this was just one scam caught. It may be just “the-tip-of-the-iceberg”.

The other employees saw the police lead the thieves away in handcuffs. What effect will that have to stopping other theft?

The moral of this real-life experience is that RDS is our customer’s friend and consultant. Don’t be shy about asking about and listening to what worries our customers the most. It’s often not about being high-tech, email marketing, tablets or new social media apps. It’s about cutting their costs, improving their profits and making their quality of life better!

We have some of the best people in the industry around us. Bring them with you when you visit your friends (customers) and you will be successful! Good Selling!

By October 2015, the Payment Card Industry (PCI) has a deadline that all merchants should be able to accept EMV payment cards or face charge backs and bad transaction fees.  So what is EMV?

EMV stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa, a global standard utilizing an integrated circuit embedded within a plastic payment card (Chip). EMV has been the payment standard in Europe since 2002.  The combination of the card (Chip) with a PIN number provides a strong level of protection for the consumer against identity theft.

So how will this technology effect your business or your pocket book. Let’s exam a few Frequently Asked Questions:

1. If I don’t make the October 15^th date will I go to prison or face fines? No, EMV is not a law, requirement, or a mandate. The only penalty imposed will be a charge back if you the merchant accept a fraudulent EMV capable credit card without using the EMV reader.  So if you accept an EMV capable card for $25.00 and the EMV card is found to be fraudulent days later, you will lose that money plus pay a $20.00 bad card fee total loss would be $45.00. This is the shifting of liability the payment card industry is talking about.

2. Don’t I have to do EMV to be PCI compliant? EMV is only one component of PCI protection but it is not mandated because it does not stop Cybercriminals from hacking your system and stealing your customer’s sensitive data. It merely reduces the threat of someone recreating a fraudulent credit card. EMV will not reduce your cost of PCI compliance.

3. If I don’t have an EMV reader, I won’t be able to accept Chip embedded cards? Not true. Only 20-30% of card holders in the US will even possess a chip card by October 15th and if they do all of them still have the magnetic stripe to be used in the event the merchant cannot read the card. Most industry experts anticipate a 3-5 year adoption rate to move completely away from the traditional Magnetic stripe card.

4. So, all I have to do is purchase a device to read the EMV card and my restaurant is ready to go? Not True. Not all EMV devices may be compatible with your POS system. So, your first step should be to contact your POS provider. They will be able to tell you the devices and processor’s they are compatible too.   If you do not know your POS provider then contact your credit card processor they will be able to recommend a solution for your business.

5. How great is my risk if I don’t make the deadline? The risk you face is an individual decision. The main basis is you will be responsible for the amount charged in your restaurant on the fraudulent card plus you will pay a bad card fee.  If your average check is $100.00 you are at greater risk than restaurants with a $15.00 Average check.  You have to decide on your own.

Currently there is a lot of confusion surrounding EMV. If you would like to speak with an RDS representative about EMV, please fill out the form on this page.