Posted on 01/26/2014 6:09:27 AM PST by John W
Michaels, the biggest U.S. arts and crafts retailer, said it is investigating a possible breach on its network and advised customers to check financial statements for fraudulent activity.
The warning, which comes in the wake of the unprecedented breach at Target Corp over the holiday shopping season, suggests that hackers may be attacking retailers in a spree the extent of which is yet to be fully understood.
If confirmed, this would be the second significant payment card breach at the retailer, whose two key investors are Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital LP.
In a high-profile 2011 attack, hackers replaced some 84 PIN pads on payment-card terminals at a small number of its stores, resulting in the theft of about 94,000 payment card numbers, according to Department of Justice attorneys who eventually prosecuted two men charged in that case.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
“....hackers may be attacking retailers in a spree the extent of which is yet to be fully understood.”
And, working for whom?
I’ve read somewhere and recently that the Europeans have a better and more secure system for credit cards and we are not adopting it because of the expense involved in the change over.
Perhaps it’s time to change?
Article in this mornings paper, chips replace strips I believe.
Asians have it, too. We are the last holdouts - because the banksters are cheap and own the political class.
Even more reason for me to continue using cash.
Make your own RFID shielded wallet to foil ID thieves...
http://lifehacker.com/5842853/make-your-own-rfid-shielded-wallet-to-foil-id-thieves
We’ve had the chip cards in Canada for about eight years now.
Another good reason to keep shopping at Hobby Lobby.
Oh great! I used my debit card at Target and my bank had to replace it. I also used my debit cart at Michaels over the holidays. Will they have to replace it - again?
Hobby Lobby is orders of magnitude better than Michaels as a craft store, and if course we want to support them for political reasons. But if you think they’re immune to hack attacks, think again.
This whole situation has made me very uneasy. It’s easy to talk about paying cash, but dragging piles of cash around is not very safe. Also last September the Iranians (?) hacked my bank and no one could get money out for a few days.
Ah, well, someday soon life as we know it today will be just a pleasant memory, and this sort of irritation we will count as pleasure.
Th Russians - anyone in the field of network security knows that
Chicken or egg? While I’ve switched to an EMV-chip credit card there are few merchants with point-of-sale terminals to read the chip. So the card still has the vulnerable magnetic strip. Once merchants have replaced their terminals you’ll be safe but for a few more years you’ll still be using the magnetic strip at gas pumps and mom-and-pop stores.
A bonus for “Hobby Lobby” doing the right thing and fighting Onazicare.
And where do the terminals come from? Banks and credit card processing firms with a lot of influence in DC. They don’t want to pay for a rollout of more secure devices. The problem is entirely on the banks’ heads.
Guaranteed solution: Leave your credit/debit card at home and spend cash.
Events like this will prevent cash from disappearing altogether.
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