What Happens If You Don’t Secure It: Real-World Scenarios and How to Prepare

By Todd Wentz, CEO, Wentz IT Consulting

Data security might not feel urgent—until it’s the only thing that matters. These are real scenarios pulled from businesses just like yours.
They’re not meant to scare you, but to show how fast things can go wrong—and how simple steps could’ve made all the difference.

Scenario 1: Retail – POS Compromise Over Wi-Fi

A small shop had its point-of-sale (POS) system running on the same Wi-Fi as customer traffic. An attacker intercepted card data, leading to chargebacks, customer complaints, and a forensic investigation.

🛡️ Prevention: Network segmentation, encrypted POS systems, and dedicated VLANs.

Scenario 2: Food Service – Payroll Fraud via Email Phishing

A local café chain got hit when a fake email—posing as the owner—requested payroll changes. No MFA was in place. Three paychecks were rerouted to a scammer before anyone noticed.

🛡️ Prevention: MFA, impersonation protection, approval policies.

Scenario 3: Manufacturing – Ransomware Shuts Down Production

An older workstation with no updates got infected after an employee clicked a phishing email. Within hours, shared drives were encrypted and production stopped. They paid to get access back.

🛡️ Prevention: EDR, employee training, tested backups, and patching.

Lessons from These Cases

• It’s not about “if”—it’s about “when”
• Every business has vulnerabilities
• You don’t need a massive budget—you just need a plan

Final Thoughts

Most attacks target the easiest victims—because they’re easy.

Don’t wait for a breach to take security seriously. Download our Business Risk Readiness Scenario Workbook and walk through what your next steps would be before disaster strikes.