This article may include partner links. If you click, visit or buy from these links, we will receive a fee or products from the companies mentioned in this post. Please read our disclosure policy for more details.
THE CURRENT CYBERSECURITY RISK
I was reading up on my favorite blogs and one of them being krebsonsecurity.com, a Cybersecurity blog ran by a journalist turned security researcher Brian Krebs, and he was reporting in his recent post “Google points to another POS vendor breach” , about how cyber crooks were able to hack into and successfully embed a malware called Poseidon “which is designed to siphon card data when cashiers swipe credit cards at an infected cash register”.
The story goes on to name a few other businesses in the hospitality industry that primarily use point of sale (POS) terminals where cyber gangs also successfully executed cyber intrusions to harvest customer credit card information which have been turned around and sold in the black market called the ‘deep web’.
ANALYSIS
Brian’s analysis of the current state of these breaches points to a depressing trend in continued vulnerabilities within the industry and less appetite in fixing the systems.
That being said, it seems like using credit cards in restaurants, hotels, or everything else where POS terminals are being used is becoming not only scary but risky as well, making the case for using cash to be a better proposition, than the convenience of using these cards and assuming all the risk.
ISSUE
In today’s ultra-connected world, where business and merchants are at the mercy of the same technology that they use to reach customers, the last thing we as the consumers should worry about is to be subjected to data breaches and our credit cards compromised every time we swipe in these places.
This actually happened to me last year as I paid off my Credit One card. After 2 months of having a zero balance on it, I was suddenly alerted that my card was being used in Florida where crooks charged almost $3000 worth of merchandise. Needless to say, it wasn’t me, I’m in Los Angeles for heaven’s sake and made sure the customer service agent on the other line was strongly aware.
The agent did everything he could to help me and assured that these charges were going to be reversed and not harm my file. All well and good except that I had to do a few steps on my end, one of which is going to a police station and actually filing a report that I then needed to attach to an affidavit the card company sent and had me fill out, a pain in the arse all the way.
CONCLUSION
So the moral of this story is if we’re on a cash only basis, we avoid the risk of being hacked, our information being sold to criminals, be subject to identity theft and be subjected to all the hassles associated with cleaning it up.
- See this scary article that recently happened to a journalist from New York, as a point of reference.
Cash is indeed king and free from cyber threats. It’s time all of us wake up to this awesome advantage.
Peace and Blessings to All.
Leave a Reply