As consumers when we hear that data was hacked or compromised immediately we think of online transaction. Well that is not the case, this past week Barnes & Noble hackers stole credit information over the last month in 63 of their stores according to the New York Times. The hackers broke into the key pad where customer enter their credit card information and PIN number. The company is still trying to determine how it happened, what is more interesting about the case is that only on key pad per store was compromised. Security experts said company insiders could have inserted malicious code, or criminals could have persuaded unsuspecting employee to click on a link containing malicious code in order to penetrate Barnes & Noble systems.
This case is not an isolated case; on December 7 2011 a Federal Indictment was unsealed in New Hampshire, the case was against four Romanians that allegedly from 2008 to May 2011 conspired to remotely hack into more than 200 US based merchants point-of-sale systems to obtain credit card information, the victim in this case was Subway restaurants.
There are more than just these few examples out in there, this is much more sophisticated than the old credit card skimming issues, this is one problem that consumers have no control over. The only way consumers can avoid this is paying cash, which many no longer do so.
References
Perlroth, N., & Schmidt, M. S. (2012, October 23). Credit Card Data Breach at Barnes & Noble Stores. Retrieved October 31, 2012, from New York Times.
Singer, B. (2012, September 17). Subway Restaurant POS Hacking Case Yields Guilty Pleas. Retrieved October 31, 2012, from Forbes.
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