[pchelpers] Re: What's behind retail data breaches

Ellen M wrote:
> this is a troubling report from C|Net. sorry it's a bit old (Sept 19)
>   =20
>   Back in 1992, Dr. Neal Krawetz, now of Hacker Factor, and several par=
tners had an idea: they wanted to bring credit card transactions to a loc=
al flea market. Better yet, they wanted De Anza Junior College in Cuperti=
no, California, to offer wireless transactions from the open-air stalls, =
operating over packet radio. The idea was good enough that they secured a=
 meeting with Verifone, the largest provider of credit card swiping equip=
ment in North America. During the meeting, Verifone agreed to loan the th=
em one of their Tranz 330 transaction units, perhaps the most commonly us=
ed credit card swiper in the world. But before handing it over, the Verif=
one person took out a 12-page document, then keyed in a master password r=
eset. Intrigued, Krawetz remembers asking what's to stop someone from ste=
aling the credit card data within. Verifone replied that it was aware of =
the risk and said "it's being addressed." Krawetz said recently, "if an e=
xpert tells me that, I'm going to believe
>  them." Now, 15 years later, he has gone public (click for PDF), with m=
ore or less the details of the flaw he first observed in 1992, the flaw t=
hat Verifone and other companies still haven't addressed.
>   =20
>  =20
> http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6774939-1.html?tag=3Dnl.e404
>
>
> Cheers,
> Ellen M.
>       =20
> ---------------------------------
> Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.=

>  Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.=20
>
>
>
>  =20
 From my reading of it the ones responsible for this may do nothing=20
until something terrible happens. Even then maybe they won't. What kind=20
of confidence does it inspire?

--=20
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