It was all over the News…
Some seventy-million Target shoppers now have their credit card information at risk from hackers in a holiday cyber attack. I was shocked.
At first, I was shocked that 70 million people had bought something at Target for Christmas – that’s a lot of shoppers. Kinda makes you wonder where the people who say, “Another day, another dollar.” are getting their money from.
Then a second shock wave hit me.
That was the concept of 70 million credit card users. That isn’t just a lot of purchase money, that’s a ton of transaction fees and interest. With that much money in fees and interest coming in, shouldn’t the banks and the retailers be spending more money on security?
More secure credit cards and readers are certainly available.
Goldfinger by artist Kim Kerns
From the outside, it looks like retailers and the banks are looking at each other and saying something like, “That’s your job.” But maybe this is an expensive enough hit to make them finally work it out.
I’m old enough to remember the James Bond movie “Goldfinger.” You know, the one where the bad guy put together an elaborate plot with beautiful women, helicopters and poison gas to steal all the gold from Fort Knox.
I guess we always get nostalgic around the holidays.
valentine…15 year olds can hack a computer now…
there is no security that can fight these types of attack.
Im sure we have a huge networks of hackers (remember the hacking
of the syrian computers )…..and its a lot easier than we most think.
with supercomputers that can work so fast now…breaking a code
is easier than ever..
one hacker on tv said that he was able to get into any companies computer
within 24 hours…..and even the data they get is sold on the internet.
you can buy stolen credit card information on the internet.
its the wild wild west out there….nothing is secret!!!1
Harley you are wrong as usual. The standard in Europe is not to use the strip that is on US cards. They use an embedded chip that sends an unique code for every transaction. Nothing is ever completely safe but our standards make us a much bigger slower moving target.
Valentine is right, the banks make so much off fees that they don’t want to cut into that profit by upgrading modern 21st century technology. Thing is that at least in Europe, the EU protects their citizens against bad banking and they insist on this. In the US banks tell the government what to do. There should be people in jail for what the US banks pulled on the sub prime collapse. No the US does the too big to fail shit.
The reason for all of this is that we don’t insist on our government to do their job, we vote for a party, we vote because of how a pol feels about abortions, gay rights, tough on defense or if they think the rich should pay more or take more from the poor.
Bubba makes a great point about the sub prime scum bags that hosed us down and continue to to this day.
Check this article from 3 days ago.
http://www.rightwingnews.com/column-2/why-the-erosion-of-public-trust-heres-why/
Wait a minute,
Advocating for increased federal regulation of the private sector????
Who is this and what have you done with Chuck ???
Always tell the truth, even if it hurts.
Put the paddles on Andy Jackson and kill off the big banks too.
Right on about the chip-and-pin that’s widespread in Europe being a big improvement over the mag swipe. However, I believe both large retailers like Target and the banks issuing credit cards would see it as mutually beneficial to roll out that system here — it’s all the mom-and-pop stores, those that don’t do 70 million transactions a month, that balk at paying thousands of dollars to replace systems they’ve already paid thousands for.
The difference in Europe is both a generally more pro-regulatory mindset … and more importantly, the fact that credit cards aren’t accepted at every little store or on every small purchase as we’ve come to expect here.
“its the wild wild west out there….nothing is secret”
Except who harley is
With that much money in fees and interest coming in, shouldn’t the banks and the retailers be spending more money on security?
Where do you think you live, a Republic who’s central concern is for the welfare and safety of its people?
Mark Valentine, yet another intelligent contributor, and one of my favorite musicians (if only he played bass).
The real question is why did Target keep that many card numbers in the first place?
Most retail stores for security reasons should be dumping the numbers after the bank clears the transaction or a few days after that. There is no legitimate reason to hold those numbers for so long unless you want to create a security risk.
Draw a picture of Hearne Mark.
🙂