On March 2nd of 2018, RMH  Franchise, who own a great number of Applebees restaurants across the US posted a notification that their Point of Sale (POS) systems were infected with a malware.

Clicking on to this link will take you to their website.  However, why in the world would they link or allow their PoS systems to be connected to the Internet?  Maybe not connected, but it would be interesting to see the details (or as much as possible) on how these PoS systems were loaded with a Malware.

Could it have been a mass attack from the Internet? Local attacks or coordinated across many states attack?  Not sure if we will ever see details on this and how it happened, but it makes one wonder even more about the safety of a WiFi connection at a restaurant. A few years back the point of sale kiosks (ziosks?) were attacked and found to be vulnerable. The person that originally discovered this went to the company and disclosed this.  The PoS (ziosks) were updated.  ( See article from 2015 here ) But is this again these terminals on each table OR from the Salespoint within the establishment?

My money is on the remote terminals on each table (ziosks).  Play is safe people, do not use these devices.  Hand your check and payment to the server or bartender.  Narrow the risks of fraud and theft by narrowing who touches your payment card.

Stay safe.