Hackers and/or Thieves

[V153]

My bank called to say not to use my debit card. Breached by the Home Depot hack. They're sendin me a new one. Lotta good that'll do. Some ahole'll just hack it again ...

My buddy Mike Muscato aka Dago aka the guy that sold me the motor called to say he wouldn't be by tonight to pick up the rest of the cash I owe him. He'd just gotten off the phone with his wife who came home to find a door kicked in & the house ransacked.

Dirty rotten thievin hackin SOBS!!! Death to them all!

[WetRaider]

That's no fun, Doug.  Sorry to hear it.

Not that it helps to commiserate any, but when I sold Wet Raider this summer, the guy paid for the boat with cash.  We hadn't yet moved to Kansas full time and there is no Wells Fargo bank in our part of Iowa to make a deposit.  Money stayed in the bank envelope in my dresser.

Spent a weekend away, came home to find a crow bar on the bed and the cash envelope (and my daughter's piggy bank) missing.  We are 95% certain it was the husband of the woman who was taking care of  our pets while we were gone.  He probably used the key she had to get inside.  Thankfully, the realtors had a few showings … when the police came to take their report, we went down to the basement to find all my tools lined up by the back door.  It appeared they were planning to return and grab some more goodies.  The motion sensor light had the switch flipped to turn it off.  Only reason we suspect this person is because the woman worked for my wife at the nursing home - it was well known that they didn't travel and didn't even like to leave the county, usually talked about having no money to do anything.  Two weekends after our stuff was taken, she was posting pictures online of her, her husband & her kids in St. Louis at a Cardinals baseball game … with comments like "Thanks for treating us to a surprise trip!"  The husband was unemployed and had not worked in 9 years, can't imagine how he'd put together a surprise trip without a windfall.

[Eric_Michael]

It's not personal.  They did not hack your card, they successfully hacked Home Depot.  We are literally seeing a 'breach a week' being announced.  Big names so far: Home Depot, Target, Goodwill, Albertsons, PF Changs, Dairy Queen, & Jimmy Johns.  The credit card industry is going as quick as they can to convert the US over to 'chip & PIN' cards, and replace the magnetic stripe cards we are used to.

For me personally I use cash whenever possible.  That keeps me from over spending on a debit/credit card and frankly I have more discretionary funds now then I ever did in the card days!  Plus I have found that many smaller businesses will give me a cash discount if I ask.  When I bought my Kubota a few years ago they gave me 10% off for cash, and that came to $2000!  Say all you want about credit card 'reward programs', $2k buys a lot of stuff!

With on-line purchases I am forced to use a card.  No problem.  My bank will give me as many checking accounts as I want.  So I opened one up and had them set it to specifically not automatically transfer funds from other accounts.  I keep a base $50 in it to cover Netflix and other small recurring charges.  Since I am making a purchase on-line, it is easy to log in to my bank and transfer the funds from a different account. 

As I work from home, I do a lot of Internet shopping.  This card number has been compromised twice in the past year.  Since it does not tie to any other accounts, there is minimal risk and my bank has always covered the fraudulent charges.  One was for a small amount of $10.47.  I only spotted it because I saw the balance move off the $50 base.  It turns out that fraudulent transaction was very common and was small enough that most people would not notice.

I don't keep lots of cash at home, but I do have some.  Living out in the country, I have shown up at my neighbors when strangers turned up & went in their horse barn.  I know my neighbors would do the same for me.  We have a sign that reads:

   Security by Glock
   Insurance by Smith & Wesson
   Funeral services by Kubota

I feel very secure living here.

[floater1]

Debit/credit breaches, home burglaries, thefts, even the White House has been broken into recently.  Nothing is off limits for people with ill intent.

[V153]

Nothing is off limits for people with ill intent.

Sad state of affairs ain't it?

Lucky for me my credit sucks so I've gotten used to not abusing it. Din't used to before the 'recession' but it sure does now. If someone want's my identity they can have it! Good riddance!!!

I own 2 credit cards. Both of which are paid in full each month. One used for material purchases at the shop. The other is a Walmart card used for fuel. The only reason I have the Walmart card is they almost always give anywhere from 5-15 cents a gallon back. It adds up.

I envy you that live in the country. Less prone to have to deal with this kinda BS. Ya my house is secured by Glock, etc too. But that don't do me a whole lotta good whilst I'm away at work. The csers that robbed Mikey's place pryed his gun safe off'n the wall! Took the whole friggin thing with em?

Thankfully I live on a street in a town where my neighbors would sound the alarm if a van pulled up in front and began emptying the house. Least I think so.

Mebbe it's just me but I think the perpetrators of such crimes need to be dealt with a lil more harshly. Not suggesting anything like chopping off their hand of course. But maybe a finger. Yank out a fingernail with pliers perhaps. Bet that'd make em think twice?

[Retro Performance]

I can't say I have any ideas how to stop the Hacking stuff but........I still use the good old fashion Petey burgler alarm to help secure the house. 

[bellj]

Not sure there is any safe place now-a-days. When we lived in the country, we had our house door kicked-in, car stolen, and a whole host of other things that (knock on wood) we've been lucky enough to avoid in town...so far - but...having learned to be a bit paranoid, I take the precautions to have sensor lights everywhere I can, recording camera systems, locks & chains & physical barricades like heavy equipment or items in the way to at least make things a little less convenient to get at - and maybe one of the most effective little items in each house is a little LED fake TV box that makes it look like someone is home at night (I know those get noticed because I've had questions from neighbors about why someone is always watching TV at night).

As far as smart chip credit cards - not sure that's the answer yet either - my wife's "chipped" cards (not the old "strip only" cards) have been "skimmed" twice at our local WalMart as recent as this last week. Not sure if the thieves hide a receiver near the checkout lines somewhere and then come back late at night when things are less busy and the lane is closed (store is open 24 hours), but my wife keeps her cards in her purse in one of those anti-skimming aluminum wallets until it comes time to pay in the checkout line - and each time this had happened, my daughter has heard a nearby beep (not at the register) just before she sticks the card in...and then the next day or two when she uses the card again it gets declined. When she calls, they tell her the card was used the first time at a restaurant in California and just this past weekend the second time (for only $3 and some odd cents - what the heck can you buy with that besides gum?) in another south-western state (maybe a local worker that sends the skimmed info to a family member out west for them to use or maybe sell?). Without even going into how embarrassing this is when you are trying to pay for something (we were trying to pay for fuel out of town no less - thank goodness we had another card along) and it get's declined - but at least they flagged and caught the transactions as fraudulent because they figured we couldn't be in two radically distant locations at the same time.

I had my PayPal account hacked one time - got an alert that they reversed a suspicious ~$50 transaction from somewhere in Asia, and as soon as that one went through before they could shut it down, they immediately went after over $600, which they didn't stop. I called my bank for help and they said to freeze the account - which of course lead to weeks of getting non-sufficient funds from stopped payments and calling the bank to remind them to reverse each penalty. Even that minor version of identity theft was a nightmare! To PayPal's credit, they gave me a key-fob that gives you a number good for 30 seconds that you use to log in with. So far that's been a good solution - too bad the credit cards don't use a similar system (of course if all cards did that, a huge number of hackers would just gang up to figure out a way around that too - so it seems like any prevention is only temporary if it's popular).

Sometimes I think the only safe living would be to buy an old silo bunker, stock up years of food, cut the internet, and live out your remaining life underground...but that's really not the way the I would prefer to live!   

[GIL_CV21]

Doug , i just got my new card yesterday for the same reason lol . Looks like they figured out how to break into Home Desperate .

[Hotwired]

Back to Old West style justice ...the problem would decrease.

[V153]

I like the piece 3rd from left. Bet ya know when that one goes off?

Speaking of looting. People learned their lesson following hurricane Andrew, and armed themselves accordingly. After Charley there was very little looting. The scene pictured was not unlike many neighborhoods around Pt Charlotte.

As a person who believes people that think the "Authorities" will protect them during a catastrophe to be delusional. I take self defense and/or home protection seriously. Well, that and I like guns ...

Got my my new debit card today. And a new PIN.  Yippee ...   

 

[nes-cv23]

That's my kind of neighborhood!     Gun control.... Use both hands!

[Eric_Michael]

As far as smart chip credit cards - not sure that's the answer yet either - my wife's "chipped" cards (not the old "strip only" cards) have been "skimmed" twice at our local WalMart as recent as this last week.

Hmmm...  I wonder if we are thinking different things.  The 'chip & PIN' cards utilize a microchip instead of a magnetic stripe.  When the card goes in to the card reader, the bank has the ability to interrogate the chip to confirm it is what it says it is.  The contents of the chip are encrypted and can only be decrypted with your PIN.  Much different than a magnetic stripe which simply responds with 'this is my card number'.

This brings in two-factor authentication for credit card transactions.  There are only three possible factors: something you know (a password), something you have (a token), and something you are (biometrics).  Chip & PIN brings in the something you know (the PIN) and something you have (the card).  Mag stripe cards only have single factor authentication - the card itself.  Sure, a signature is supposed to be the second factor, but that is easily forged, rarely checked, and often not required.  Adding the encryption on the chip secures the data on the card.  Even checking ID does not improve the security.  That is simply another token and is not another authentication factor. 

A few years back I was in the PC based point-of-sale industry.  We had mag stripe card readers that plugged in-line with a PS1 keyboard.  Open a DOS prompt, swipe my card, and all the numbers appeared on the screen.  Clear text, not encrypted.  Thus very easy to clone on to a different card.  The new chip cards will prevent that.

To PayPal's credit, they gave me a key-fob that gives you a number good for 30 seconds that you use to log in with.

Yup, that's a 2nd factor of authentication!  The little device creates a numeric passphrase based off its ID & the time.  Push the button later, get a different number.  On the server end they can compute the same number.  If the numbers match, it proves you have the token in your possession.  Tie that in with your password and it is good security.

-Eric

[Hotwired]

Gun control.... Use both hands!

I think I need that on a tee shirt!

I keep a 44 mag loaded and handy ... first two rounds are "home defence" rounds filed with light shot, that would sting! ... the following 4 rounds will put a hole though the SOB, who may think he has the right to loot and pillage,  .... and the wall behind him.

[V153]

Tie that in with your password and it is good security.

-Eric

Til somebody outsmarts it I spose ...

Yo Chris the .44's a fine weapon. But kinda a hand full for a lil guy like me. For perimeter defense I prefer something with a tad more stopping power.

M9200A1 "Jungle Gun". 12 ga semi-auto. Buckshot only.

[bellj]

I suppose it will sound kind of strange since I've always been in the computer industry, but I've never been curious enough to actually look into the latest credit card technology like Eric has. I've always attributed my wife's "skimming" incidents to RFID capabilities that I had heard certain smart cards had or have (I suppose I should do a simple web search to find out - but I thought that's the reason for those aluminum wallets like my wife carries - maybe just a scare sales tactic?). Maybe that's just TV series or internet fantasy in reality, but I have heard of skimming equipment (besides fake card swipers planted in a location to steal numbers) attached to smartphones or tablets that reads cards just like those type that you simply wave near the gas pumps. Could the beeps we attribute to skimming simply be unrelated coincidences - of course - but since it's happened twice now it's hard not to assume they are related in some way.

I've always hoped that a part of the reason - so far - that I haven't been skimmed is because I wear my cell phone (those are usually emitting RF when on) near my wallet that I keep in my front pocket (and let my wife pay with her cards usually) - but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

I suspect as long as over the phone and over the web credit transactions using just the visible numbers, expiration dates, and sometimes three digit number from the back are allowed (without something like the "key-fob" technique), that grabbing numbers by any way possible will continue to be an "Achilles heel" in card security. I service a local business that uses simple card readers on their computers for reserving rentals from a popular company that ties their independent agents together through a web application - and to test the reader when troubleshooting, I can still open even just a simple text document and swipe and all the credit card numbers are pasted in just like in the old DOS days (I know that will date me) without encryption as far as I've noticed.

I love the "drunks with guns" idea - except I think we already have that on some rowdy nights here and they aren't on the "protecting" side of things unfortunately!   

[V153]

I love the "drunks with guns" idea - except I think we already have that on some rowdy nights here and they aren't on the "protecting" side of things unfortunately!   

Sounds like Tampa ...

I agree the title needs a lil work but the thought's there ...