FICRY

what's in your wallet?

An investigation authored by the Associated Press has concluded that your personal information is vulnerable and unprotected every time you swipe your credit-card and wait for approval.

Sensitive, financial data, including your name and account number are “ferried” to hacker’s computers while the transactions travels from store to bank on the information superhighway, according to the AP. Even social security numbers are free-for-the-hacking while transactions take place.

The private sector determines the safety of over 50 billion, American transactions, over the course or a single year. “The rules are cursory at best and all but meaningless at worst”, according to the AP’s analysis of data breaches. Most retailers are NOT subject to security audits, but “evaluate themselves.”

Currently, there is zero incentive for credit card providers to enhance security. Fraud is just one of the detracting costs of conducting a business based on speed, low-cost information swapping and a convenient connection. They see fraud as a cost of doing business and say ” stricter security would throw sand into the gears of the payment system.”

In its analysis of credit-card information theft Jordan Robertson asserts that  every time you pay with plastic, you are “gambling” with your financial security. He writes: “Even if your transaction isn’t hacked, you still lose: Merchants pass to all their customers the costs they incur from fraud.” Consumers pay for the “tens-of-millions dollars” lost to fraud every year, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. In fact,  many breaches go completely undetected: “even the companies that had the payment industry’s top rating for computer security, a seal of approval known as PCI compliance, have fallen victim to huge heists.”

Victims of fraud, like Pamela LaMotte, 46, of Colchester, Vt., who was unemployed when her information was intercepted, report personal upheaval and intense, financial stress, ” had to borrow money from her mother and boyfriend to pay $500 in overdraft and late fees” which were eventually refunded” while the banks investigated,” Robertson writes.

LaMotte described fear and instability during this period of her life. She says that for those living paycheck to paycheck, even if reimbursement eventually follows, fraud can be devestating.

Is the government responsible for regulating and ensuring credit-card-security? Or would it be unlawful for the government to interfere in the security of a private, non-governmental enterprise?

By Cora Weiss, Editor-in-Chief, FICRY.com

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