Advocate: restaurants suing POS co. for security breaches
The Advocate reported today that a 2008 investigation by the U.S. Secret Service, which uncovered that point of sale systems at about 15 restaurants in Louisiana had been hacked, led several local restaurants to sue the manufacturer of their POS systems. The investigation revealed that customers’ credit card numbers were stolen and used to make illegal purchases around the world.
Earlier this year in the 15th Judicial District Court in Lafayette, a group of Louisiana restaurant owners filed suit against the manufacturer of the software, Georgia-based Radiant Systems, and its sole South Central Louisiana reseller, Computer World in Scott, the newspaper reported. Radiant Systems manufactures the “Aloha POS,” and each system was purchased through and installed by Computer World.
The Lafayette lawsuit was filed on behalf of Crawfish Town USA, Don’s Seafood & Steakhouse, Mansy Enterprises, Mel’s Diner Part II, Sammy’s, Sammy’s of Zachary and BS&J Enterprises. The restaurants, which have since taken steps to correct the problems, are seeking damages for the costs and loss of business they incurred.
A similar suit was filed in state district court in Baton Rouge by On the Half Shell, which was among the restaurants attacked by hackers. It also names Radiant Systems and Computer World as defendants.
Luiz Velez, resident agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Baton Rouge office, said each hack involved restaurants using Internet-based computer systems.
Velez said more than 100,000 cards were exposed and conservatively placed the fraud loss for area banks at about $1.2 million.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again, it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to go public this year.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
Subscribe to this comment's feed