Payment security breaches are rampant occurrences these days. And event organisers are quite troubled with these.
In the recent past, there are a number of event companies that had faced and announced security breaches as a result of which there were unauthorised charges made at several places. This precisely happened because the systems were installed with a rogue malware. The companies had to issue apologies and post information on the respective websites about the affected location and dates.
That is why here an attempt is made to take care of the situation so that the event planners can deal with the situation before and after the breach.
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- Have Clauses in Contracts That Offer You Legal Protection – Legal protection is necessary. This is more vital in the cases where the event planner is not involved with the transactions dealt with other event planners. That is why as the client shares his or her credit card details with you, you must ensure that there should be a contract about what their expectations should be. Under such circumstances, creating a clear contract guideline about which event partner is responsible for which transaction is a great insurance policy that can do away with any liability or confusion if there is a security breach.
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- Alert the Clients Then and There – Even if a particular client did not do business at the respective time-frame of the occurrence of the security breach event planners should still make them aware about the incident and that too, in writing. Planners should also put in the information on how the supplier is addressing the issue and reminding the clients about who has the liability for it. There should be a clear understanding about what the potential breach of contract is.
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- Make the Clients offer Account Information Directly to the Event Partners That Are Handling the Specific Tasks – If possible event planners can choose to have a client give payment information directly to the suppliers like venues or caterers. This actually gives relief to the event planner if the account information get compromised.
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- Find Out the Event Policies of Potential Event Partners – Prior to contracting with suppliers such as restaurants and hotels, planners should research and review their policy against security breaches that involve account numbers and other sensitive client information. Ask them questions like what kind of security protection and protocols they use to secure the transaction and how they are preparing to resist any malware that infects their systems. Also you must ask what will happen if a security breach happens. It is better to consider another venue if the present one is unable to offer you a clear answer.
- Consider Alternative Payment Options – There are a number of electronic payment services that are emerging these days. Experts opine that there is too much faith attached with a plastic card with magnetic stripe. Electronic payments are more encrypted and thus, more difficult to copy and cheat than a plastic piece.
The above are some of the ways through which companies providing event planning solutions can manage payment security breaches. If you deal with it by keeping the above in mind you can divert all your energy to organise a great event instead of worrying about other things.
