Arrests Made in Massive Wireless Credit Card Heist

[Planet]

After a three-year under cover investigation conducted by the Secret Service, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed charges against an international cast of characters allegedly involved in the hacking of nine major U.S. retailers and the theft and sale of over 40 million credit and debit card numbers.
Check out the full article here (http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3763616) then come back to discuss your thoughts.

[golfnut]

That's scary and I shop at some of those stores. What's interesting about this story is that the exact same thing happened, with the same type of hack, at Lowes hardware stores a few years ago. These stores apparently use WiFi barcode scanners over an unencrypted network that allowed the hackers to funnel their way back to corporate servers. You'd think that folks would have learned from the Lowes incident.

I've also read that hackers have yet another tool at their disposal that bypasses any encryption; microphones that listen to keystrokes.

Apparently every key emits a different sound that can be decoded. So even though that book ordered at Amazon while using Starbucks WiFi is through an https link, the keystroke sounds could reveal your credit card number.

Interesting hack with an iPhone is also mentioned in this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_hi_te/tec_hacking_facilities

Greg

[Planet]

I remember that Lowes hack (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5511068-1.html?hhTest=1). Hard to believe that was over 4 years ago! Bottom line, nothing is safe, it just depends how badly someone wants it.

[Alan87i]

I encourage people I know who make on line purchases to use Paypal.
And for credit card purchases, Folks get a another card, special order. Think long and hard about how much you might spend on line per item/order.
Set the card up with that amount as a limit. Keep it small few hundred bucks or so. Use it only online or at these wifi enabled stores and restaurants.
This will at least keep the amount you may loose down to the max you set on the card.