Back in 2009, I reported on some hacks in the hospitality sector involving Radiant Systems’ point of sale technology and one of their distributors in Louisiana. But it was their back office technology service that was involved in a breach recently disclosed by The Fisherman’s Restaurant to its employees.
By letter dated October 8th signed by both John Pearson of Radiant Systems and Bob Novello of The Fisherman’s Restaurant, employees were informed that on September 23, Radiant discovered that employees’ personal information had been transmitted to another Radiant Systems restaurant customer. The erroneous data transmissions began on or about May 3 and continued through September 24. The employees’ personal information may have included their name and nickname. postal address and telephone number, date of birth, Social Security number, gender, veteran status, some employment status information, marital status, and number of dependents.
Upon discovery, Radiant “took steps to stop the erroneous data transmission and worked with the recipient to delete your personal information from its systems,” employees were informed. The letter also informed employees that no evidence of any misuse of the information was detected. Affected employees were offered free enrollment in Experian ProtectMyID Alert.
The letter, a copy of which was posted on California’s breach site, does not explain how the problem occurred. Was this a new account for Radiant, or was there some upgrade or change in an existing system that caused the misdirected transmission? Nor is it clear why the recipient of The Fisherman’s Restaurant’s employee data didn’t spot the error in May and contact Radiant immediately.