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.
Read the rest of The Advocate story here.