This content was created by Robert Siciliano. This content was uploaded by Robert Siciliano. This is a YouTube news/interview segment titled "Retailer Gets Hacked 4.2 Million Credit Cards Identity Theft Protection www.IDTheftSecurity.com" (posted 2008-03-19). The clip is a multi-speaker TV-style discussion about a large data breach at the Hannaford Brothers supermarket chain that exposed an estimated 4.2 million credit/debit card numbers (with the company confirming ~1,800 reported fraud cases). Robert Siciliano (CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com) is interviewed and provides consumer protection advice — monitor statements closely and dispute unauthorized charges within the required timeframe, prefer credit cards over debit when possible, and be aware of risks from compromised PINs and payment-system malware. Participants include news hosts/interviewers (SPEAKER A/B) and Robert Siciliano (SPEAKER C).
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Pay attention to this. Data thieves who are out there fishing for your credit card numbers, they're now targeting us at grocery stores as we're buying our goods. Millions of people have now been exposed at one major grocery store chain just when you swipe your card through. Find out which one, find out if your account could be in danger.
A massive data breach hitting over 100 East Coast grocery stores. 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers stolen. The huge theft affecting the Hannaford Brothers supermarket chain. Now that company is confirming 1,800 cases of fraud as a direct result. So how can you protect yourself from something like this? Robert Siciliano, CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, joins us now. Robert, this apparently happened during the authorization process when you swipe your card and, you know, Visa or MasterCard or whomever is authorizing the transaction, right?
Mm-hmm, right. Some way, somehow, either this system was compromised via a virus, spyware, there could have been human error. There's just so many ways that the systems can be compromised nowadays.
And apparently whoever did this also recorded or had access to people's PIN numbers. They swipe the card, they type in the PIN number, and then I guess these people went off and, you know, took those two things, the account number and the PIN number, and started stealing from these folks.
They either made fraudulent charges against their credit cards or they went out and actually recreated the debit card and were able to actually take money out of their bank accounts.
And the, you know, the supermarket chain says, "Oh, it was less than 2,000 cases," but the fact of the matter is it took from December to March to figure all of this out, apparently, and in the meantime, I mean, that's an awful lot of theft.
That's 2,000 people that have been paying attention to their statements that recognize that there's a problem. Guaranteed there are going to be more people that have been affected by this now that the cat's out of the bag.
Yeah, so how do you— how do you protect yourself from this kind of thing? I mean, other than watching your statements religiously, how do you stop it?
Well, as a consumer, your biggest responsibility is just like you said, paying close attention to your statements and refuting unauthorized charges within a 60-day period of time. If you don't refute those charges within 2 billing cycles, you may actually be held responsible for those unauthorized charges.
Even if, I mean, you know, if I look at my statements, if somebody charges something to a store that I might shop once in a while, you know, if it was a small amount, relatively small amount, I probably wouldn't pay any attention.
Most people don't pay close enough attention to the information on their statements, and that's how they get bit, and that's how the hackers continue to stay in business.
Is there, I mean, any suggestion here, is a credit card better than a debit card in a case like this?
Most of the time I recommend that people utilize a credit card over a debit card, because if you use a debit card and your PIN's compromised, that's money taken right out of your bank account. So that can affect the quality of life, whereas if it's the credit card, it's the credit card company's money that's affected, not your cash.
