Seminars Tuesday and Thursday aim to help businesses identify and deal with data breaches, especially with credit card transactions.

Tadd Downs of the U.S. Secret Service will talk about point-of-sale data breaches and how to snuff them out. 

The free seminars, hosted by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, will be 10 a.m. Tuesday at the Evergreen Fire Hall and 9 a.m. Thursday at the Pin and Cue Bowling Alley in Whitefish. 

“It’s going to help businesses learn how to not become a victim of cyber crime,” Flathead County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Bruyer said.

All business owners and managers are encouraged to attend, but Bruyer said that the seminars will focus on those that handle high volumes of credit card transactions. 

Downs is expected to identify patterns of data breaches, what to do in the event of a breach and how law enforcement responds.

There were 1,367 confirmed data breaches nationwide in 2013, according to a press release on the event. 

Bruyer said the Sheriff’s Office deals with those types of calls on a steady basis. In 2014, deputies responded to 69 incidents related to credit card fraud.

“We’ve had a lot of credit card thefts, so it will be one way to help keep businesses alert on those things,” he said.

The seminars are expected to last about an hour.