The best way to protect any small pharmacy from cyber attacks is pretty straightforward: preventative measures are always the most effective and most affordable things you can do, especially when you’re running a business like a small pharmacy where you have a large amount of sensitive information stored in your system.
But after preventative measures, it’s very important to know the signs of a POS system breach and be able to respond quickly with a plan already in place so that your business and your customers are as safe as possible. So what exactly are the signs that your retail pharmacy POS system is experiencing a data breach or may be vulnerable to cyberhackers? Here are a few of the most common clues:
- The computer system turns on and off without reason. If your POS system and entire computer keeps turning off without anyone in your business actually causing it to do so, this is one of the most obvious signs that a malware virus got inside the system and is starting to cause problems.
- Suspicious activity in the system after regular business hours. If you suspect that someone is trying to sift through your data and and steal whatever might be of use, they’re probably going to do this after your business has closed because their actions are less likely to be detected if the system isn’t in use.
- Unknown programs have been installed randomly, and some programs (especially anti-virus POS pharmacy software) may have been uninstalled or disabled. Most hackers will uninstall or disable security programs after getting into the system so that they’re able to search for whatever data they want, and it’s common to see new programs installed because these will enable the data breach. In most cases, foreign software can be installed into a system under the disguise of another “security” program which is offered from an unknown sender and can be downloaded as an email attachment.
So do you agree with these three things, or do you know of any other red flags with pharmacy POS system security issues? Be sure to share your thoughts and/or questions in the comments section!
