Louisiana Restaurant Owners About To File Charges against Radiant Systems

A group of Louisiana restaurant owners will be filing a case against a credit card payment system manufacturer, Radiant Systems of Alpharetta for creating a system that makes for access of credit card information stored in their devices' software. The system is said to be easily hacked and that classified credit card information can easily be retrieved.

Also included in the planned lawsuit is Computer World, a Louisiana retail store chain, an authorized distributor of Radiant System's payment system called, "Aloha."

The restaurateurs allege that Radiant System's Aloha, stores credit card information after a card has been swiped. Details of the credit card information can then be easily downloaded and viewed. This feature in Aloha according to the group is in clear violation of security guidelines observed by major credit card companies such as VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.

Credit card companies lose almost half a billion dollars yearly due to credit card fraud. Their business have been severely impacted by unauthorized purchases and they are doing all they can to eliminate or reduce identity theft.

The restaurant owners decided to file a lawsuit against Radiant System after they received a lot of complaints from customers. Clients who ate at their restaurants complained that when they started to receive their credit card bills they discovered a number of unauthorized entries and purchases. The restaurant owners are then pointing their fingers at Radiant System holding them responsible for putting up a system that can easily be tampered.

The manufacturers of Aloha, on the other hand, refused to accept responsibility saying that security breaches are normal in the industry and that the recent incidents concerning the restaurateurs' customers were not isolated cases. They also claimed that their product is equipped with advanced security features and that it stands by the integrity of their device. Radiant Systems stated that it is aware of the scale of credit card fraud in the country and it has on its part incorporated technologies to their products that protect it from hackers and unscrupulous individuals. The restaurateurs' allegations they claim are incorrect, malicious, and baseless.

Incidentally, the company is presently facing similar fraud cases in some parts of Louisiana.

Computer World, on the other hand, was also included in the lawsuit because according to the group of restaurant owners, the company installed a system in Aloha that would allow their technicians to access software and hardware data offsite. The system uses the same password and code for all restaurants making it easy prey to hackers and identity theft groups.

Doug Nicholas

Doug Nicholas, a financial consultant by profession with a Masters degree in International Business from Brown University, is also an ardent writer. Though he has a full time job at one of the companies listed on Wall Street, he does manage to squeeze in time to follow his passion. He puts his ideas to words in his articles related to finance and business.