League City Restaurant Group Achieves PCI DSS Compliance

A League City restaurant group operating eight locations across the Houston area failed their annual PCI DSS compliance self-assessment because their point-of-sale (POS) systems were on the same network as their guest WiFi and management systems. Their payment processor threatened to increase their transaction fees by 40% if compliance was not demonstrated within 90 days.

The PCI DSS Violation

The restaurant group’s network had been set up by the POS vendor’s technician with no consideration for PCI DSS requirements. The cardholder data environment (CDE) — POS terminals and payment network — was on the same flat network as management computers, guest WiFi, and back-office systems. This violated PCI DSS Requirement 1 (install and maintain a network firewall) by failing to segment the CDE from other networks.

PCI DSS Network Remediation

SpaceTown IT remediated PCI DSS compliance at all eight locations over 60 days: network segmentation creating isolated CDE VLANs at each location with firewall policy preventing any traffic between CDE and other networks, guest WiFi isolation, patch management ensuring all POS systems current, unique user IDs for all POS system access eliminating shared credentials, audit log collection from all CDE systems, and quarterly external vulnerability scan via approved ASV vendor.

PCI DSS SAQ Completion

SpaceTown IT assisted the restaurant group in completing their annual SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire) — the formal PCI DSS compliance attestation. All requirements documented and satisfied. Payment processor compliance conditions met within 90-day deadline. Transaction fee increase avoided, saving approximately $18,000/year.

PCI Compliance for Houston Restaurants

SpaceTown IT provides PCI DSS compliance for Houston restaurants and retailers. Call (832) 304-9748.