The Wall Street Journal on Friday published a story titled Breaking the Code - How Credit Card Data Went Out the Wireless Door. It reports on how a Marshall’s Discount store in St Paul, Minneapolis had sloppy wireless date security and allowed tons of credit card data to be stolen right under their noses.

Their wireless network had less security than many people have on their home networks. The hackers, who have not been found, downloaded at least 45.7 million credit- and debit-card numbers from about a year’s worth of records. Not only were credit card data lost, but also data like social security numbers, drivers license etc.

Once these credit card data was stolen, fake credit cards based on these data can be issued. The hackers can then use these cards and spend them as they please. Eventually, that is how these frauds are detected - when credit card holders start noticing bogus spending on their card. They people who use these cards with stolen identity also spend as much as they can away with.

What TJX (which owns Marshall’s) neglected was simply to encrypt their wireless data! (which you’d think would be a standard especially for a major company with an IT stuff). It enabled the hackers to simply hack into their system and created use passwords!

The article in the journal also touched upon the topic if companies should be legally responsible if they were sloppy and allowed your credit card data to be stolen. I personally think there should not be such legislation because sooner or later, the smart companies out their will realize that offer data security could be a competitive advantage.

What puzzles me is that big companies like TJX can be so sloppy. The big lesson here is that even when shopping at major retailers, your credit card data could be compromised and your identity stolen. I will be writting a post soon on identity theft prevention and steps to take when it happens.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 10:46 pm and is filed under Identity Theft, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.