40 million credit cards stolen
Written by jlgaddis on June 18, 2005 – 9:30 am -Breach affects 40M+ credit cards
As someone who does a lot of credit card transactions online, this kinda worries me. I don’t really keep track, but I probably manage to do 15 or 20 credit card transactions online a month. Those are personal transactions, by the way, not on a corporate purchasing card. I pay some bills online (those that I can), pay my membership fees to the Free Software Foundation and others online, and buy and sell online using credit cards. Admittedly, I’m a little more “tech-savvy” than the average user and I’ve always been extremely cautious when it comes to online privacy and security.
In the last few months, the amount of private data that’s been reported data has been simply outrageous. It could be that it’s always been this way, and companies are just disclosing breaches more freely now that various laws are in effect. In 2005, however, there have numerous reports of credit card and other personal data (name, address, SSN, DOB, etc.) being stolen online. I’ve been fortunate in that I haven’t received one of those “you’re personal data has been compromised” letters, but I fully expect to one of the days. That’s a sad thing to look forward to.
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