Target Hack a Tipping Point in Moving Away From Magnetic Stripes : All Tech Considered : NPR
The credit and debit card data breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus compromised at least 70 million American consumers, and analysts say even more of us are at risk. That’s because the technology we use to swipe for our purchases — magnetic stripes on the backs of cards — isn’t hard for a skilled fraudster to hack.
“It’s totally unprotected and it’s static, so it’s the same data that’s read every single time. It’s just about the worst security that you can put into a payment system,” says Avivah Litan, a security analyst for Gartner, a firm retailers hire to assess their cybersecurity gaps.
Sophisticated cyberthieves got consumer data during the holiday season breaches by injecting a virus into Target’s card payment terminals. From there, the bad guys systematically captured the information found on every card swiped, from Thanksgiving through just before Christmas.
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