When most people think about credit card thieves and identity theft, their biggest concerns typically center around using a credit card online. Despite the concern that online credit card fraud is the biggest problem, a recent report from a Chicago-based security company called Ambiron TrustWave has found that the greatest risks are actually in using your credit card at restaurants and other brick and mortar establishments.
According to the study, restaurants were the biggest problem area of all. In fact, the review indicated that 62% of credit card security breaches over the past 18 months were from the food services industry.
Mike Petitti, the senior vice-president of the company that conducted this review, stated that the security breaches from these establishments are largely caused by using third parties to help them process the credit card payment. In essence, even if the restaurant is not directly connected to the Internet in any way, the company used to process the claim may utilize the Internet and hackers are able to access the information from here.
Even more frightening, the report issued by Ambiron TrustWave went on to say that a typical restaurant security breach results in gaining information on approximately 40,000 credit cards. Therefore, these incidences far exceed the number of people involved in a typical skimming attack (which involves using a special device to record the information contained on the credit card’s magnetic strip). In addition, these heists are pulled off by more than just your average waiter writing down a random customer’s credit card account number. Rather, the report indicates that these crimes are perpetrated by larger international organizations that use the information they steal in order to create counterfeit credit cards.
The report also states that large restaurant chains are less likely to fall victim to this type of hacking than the single mom and pop restaurants. This is because larger companies are usually better capable of applying greater amounts of security simply because they have more money to do so.
Fortunately, credit card companies are continually working toward methods to make credit card counterfeiting more difficult. One method is using a chip that is almost impossible to copy. Trials for this new chip are already underway in Canada and they are expected to begin use in 2010. With this method, cardholders will have to enter a PIN in order to use the card.
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