A Critical Look at Restaurant Network Security
Cihan Çobanoğlu · Journal of Foodservice Business Research · 2007
This study investigated the information technology (IT) security practices and prevention techniques of restaurants. A random sample of 1,143 restaurant IT managers were selected from the Hospitality Technology Magazine subscribers. The survey was completed by 116 restaurant information technology (IT) managers. Twenty-four percent of the restaurant networks had a computer network attack within the last 12 months. On average, the restaurants received 1-5 network attacks within the last 12 months. A security index (SI), the total number of security tools utilized, was created for each respondent. The size of the restaurant (number of units) was positively correlated with the security index, and the total number of network security tools utilized by restaurants. Regarding attack types, “Virus Attack” (71.4%) was reported most frequently, followed by “Insider Abuse of Net Access” (57.1%) and “Laptop Theft” (42.9%), and “Spoofing” (39.3%). In terms of protection from these attacks, restaurant IT managers reported that the most used protection tool is antivirus software (86.2%), hardware firewall (79.3%) and physical security (75.9%). The least used network security tools are honeypots (7.7%) and biometrics (14.8%). The study concludes with suggestions for restaurants as to how to improve network security as well as provide recommendations for future research in this area.