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Jimmy Johns isn’t the only breach … Signature Systems PDQ point-of-sale systems

Posted: September 28, 2014 by IntentionalPrivacy in Financial vulnerabilities, Identity theft, Security Breach
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According to KrebsOnSecurity.com, Jimmy Johns aren’t the only restaurants to get caught in this breach, which lasted from June 16 through mid-September (dates vary at some locations). Many small restaurants use Signature Systems PDQPOS point-of-sale systems. A total of 216 Jimmy Johns and 108 other restaurants are affected because “an authorized person gained access to a user name and password that Signature Systems used to remotely access POS systems.” This access allowed the attacker to install malware to steal payment card data, containing the cardholder’s name, card number, expiration date, and verification code from the magnetic stripe of the card.

I wonder if Signature Systems changed their passwords on a regular basis? Probably not. Did they use two-factor authentication? Long and strong passwords? Did they conduct employee training on anti-phishing techniques?

Unfortunately, as of October 28, 2013, PDQPOS was only acceptable for pre-existing deployments. So it’s possible that some of these restaurants may receive fines if the system was installed after that date.

What do the Goodwill, DQ, Jimmy Johns and Home Depot have in common?

Posted: September 13, 2014 by IntentionalPrivacy in Financial vulnerabilities, Identity theft, Security Breach
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They’ve all had recent breaches.

How many well-known and large breaches have we had in the past year? A bazillion! Please see the page I’ve posted that shows a list of recent breaches.

What should you do if you’ve used a payment card–debit or credit–at a store with a recent breach?

  1. Check your financial statement to confirm that you used the card within the time period breached.
  2. If you have unauthorized charges, notify your financial institution immediately.
  3. Even if you don’t have unauthorized charges, ask your bank or credit union to replace your card.
  4. If the breached company is offering identity protection, sign up for it.
  5. If your identity has been stolen, this FTC site–Create an Identity Theft Report–will help you create documents for the various places you will need to contact.
  6. Don’t shop with a debit card online.
  7. Use the credit card option when shopping with a debit card.

KrebsOnSecurity stated last week that banks are seeing fraudulent ATM withdrawals from debit cards stolen in the Home Depot breach. Be vigilant!

The last thing to think about, if a company has a breach and only has a news release. Two recent examples include Dairy Queen and Jimmy John’s. There’s no additional information on their website, not even an apology! Should you continue to visit their establishment?  How do you know they’ve even cleaned up their payment systems?

I’m voting with my feet and I will never buy anything from either Jimmy Johns or Dairy Queen again.

More on the Target breach …

Posted: December 29, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Security Breach
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According to the NY Times, Target is partnering with a Verizon forensic team to investigate the breach, as well as the Secret Service and the Justice Department.

If you would like to learn more about PIN number analysis, read this article http://www.datagenetics.com/blog/september32012/. Nick Berry, the president of Datagenics, also gave a speech on July 23, 2013, on Ted Talks about how to use passwords and be safer on the Internet.

 

What to know about the Target breach …

Posted: December 27, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Financial vulnerabilities, Identity theft, Security Breach, Tips, Vulnerabilities
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I shop at Target about once a week. Last Saturday, I was dismayed to discover that an estimated 40 million debit and credit cards used at Target had been stolen. This isn’t the first time my card number has been stolen, and it probably won’t be the last, unfortunately.

Many of those cards will be duplicate numbers, so the total number of cards stolen will probably be fewer than 40 million. Still, it is a very large breach, the second largest to date. The biggest breach—90 million credit/debit account numbers!—in the US occurred at TJX over a period of 18 months and was discovered on December 18, 2006 (TJX data theft).

First, let’s look at what happened:

  • On December 15, 2013, malware was discovered on Target’s point-of-sale systems at US stores. Target eliminated the malware, and notified card processors and payment card networks.
  • According to some sources (a Reuters story posted on Yahoo!), Target did not find the breach; it was discovered by a security researcher. That is worrisome.
  • According to Target, the issue only affected US stores; purchases made online at Target.com or in Canada were not part of the breach.
  • In their statement, Target explains the breach occurred between 11/27/2013 and 12/15/2013.
  • PIN data was stolen (Reuters – Target says PINs stolen, but confident data secure), but not the key, which according to Target’s statement, resides at the external card processing center. They are not giving out the name of their processing center. The PIN data is encrypted with Triple DES encryption.  To decrypt the PIN data, the thieves need the key.
  • There are 2 types of security codes used with credit/debit cards. Each card issuer calls the security codes by different names.
    • The first code is embedded in the magnetic stripe of the card and is used when you present the card to a merchant; it’s often called the CVV code. This one was included in the stolen data.
    • The second number, often called the CVV2 code, is not included in the magnetic stripe data and therefore was not stolen. This is the number used when you make card-not-present transactions, such as online or over the phone. American Express prints the four-digit number they use on the front side of the card, while most other issuers use a three-digit code printed on the back of the card next to the signature area.
  • The US Secret Service is investigating, as well as an unnamed outside investigator.
  • Stay tuned for more details. I don’t think investigators have a good handle on this theft yet, so the details are likely to change.

Note: PINs are not the safest way to protect your financial information; there are only 10,000 combinations (0000 to 9999). Europe uses electronic chips in their cards; another method is a dynamic pin generated through a text message or some other media, such as an RSA token. The problem with dynamic pins is that they’re slow and expensive.

According to Krebs on Security, stolen Target credit/debit card numbers are already being sold in underground black markets in batches of one million cards.

What to do?

  1. Monitor any account(s) used at Target at least daily for evidence of tampering.
  2. Check out the Target breach details.
  3. Get a copy of your credit report. You get 1 free credit report from each credit agency per year. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action
  4. Target says they will pay for credit reporting; they will have more details later.
  5. Replace your card:
    • If you use a Target REDcard, contact Target for a replacement card.
    • Ask your bank or credit union to replace each card used at Target during the dates the breach occurred.
  6. If you choose not to replace your card, at least change your PIN number.
  7. When you choose a PIN, do not use your birth date or consecutive digits, such as “1234.”
  8. Some cards allow you to add an alert when it’s used; check with your card issuer to find out if they have this feature. The Target REDcard does give you this ability.
  9. Do not respond to any scam emails, texts, or phone calls asking for your PIN or your social security number or your credit card number.
  10. Some people suggest buying a prepaid credit card or using cash instead of using credit/debit cards. I’ve never used one, so I don’t know anything about costs, but I’m going to look into it.

If you notice fraudulent activity in your account:

  1. Notify your card issuer immediately at the number on the back of your card and cancel your card. This greatly limits the payment portion of fraud you’re responsible for.
  2. Put a block on your credit report at one of the three credit reporting agencies:
  3. Read the FTC’s tips for “Lost or Stolen Credit, ATM, and Debit Cards.”

Who pays the costs?

While it’s true that the banks and the merchant eat the losses initially; ultimately, we all pay the price of such theft through higher costs.

Groklaw shutting down …

Posted: August 25, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Cell phone, Privacy, Security or Privacy Initiatives
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More websites that value privacy are shutting down … Groklaw, Lavabit, and Silent Circle.

While I agree with much of what Pamela Jones said in this article, http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130818120421175, I can’t agree with her conclusion to get off the Internet. “They” win then, don’t they?

I also have to agree with PandoDaily’s Adam L. Penenberg that their owners shutting down these 3 websites in particular was not such a great idea. http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/20/why-shutting-down-groklaw-lavabit-and-silent-circle-was-a-bad-move/  Like the guy said in The Godfather, “Go to the mattresses!” Keep people interested in fighting for their rights.

Now, back to the usual type of privacy-impacting shenanigans this website looks at. This article talks about how stores want to personalize your shopping experience for your shopping habits, kinda like Amazon already does. http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/23/customer-stalking-coming-soon-to-a-store-near-you/

I like coupons as well as the next person, but … it’s c-r-e-e-p-y! Facial recognition software, emotion-sensing technology … Carmel Deamicis calls it customer stalking and I don’t want to be stalked. Next thing you know, I’m gonna have one of those coffee machines that brews individual cups of coffee at a bazillion dollars per cup sitting in my kitchen and I’m going to feel bad every time I throw one of those little cups away. And, besides which, the type of coffee that goes in them is kinda nasty.

I don’t like it when Amazon tells me what I’ve looked at and what I’ve bought and what somebody else that bought what I bought bought … Geez, is that even grammatical?!

But what I do know is this: It’s creepy.

Why does a town of 8,300 people need an armored vehicle and a SWAT team?

Posted: July 24, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Personal safety, Privacy, Vulnerabilities
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I recently read an article called the “Rise of the Warrior Cop” in the Wall Street Journal. Ordinarily, I would tend to blow off an article such as this.

Except there are too many articles like these:

Reasonable search and seizure? It’s supposed to be a right guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Filter bubbles and online privacy …

Posted: July 15, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Browser Vulnerabilities, Privacy, Security or Privacy Initiatives
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A filter bubble is when the results of doing an Internet search are targeted to you–your likes, your age, your location, your click history, and other aggregated information–meaning that you don’t see objective results when you search. It also means that advertiser links can be targeted more closely to what you might purchase. For an interesting look at filter bubbles, check out this information page at https://duckduckgo.com/?kad=en_US. The comments at the bottom of the page are very enlightening.

But is your information private when you search using DuckDuckGo? Maybe. You can read more about Web privacy and the NSA at Duck Duck Go: Illusion of Privacy and CNN’s How the U.S. forces Net firms to cooperate on surveillance.

For a more in-depth look at how Google personalizes your searches, read Personalized Search for Everyone and look at your Google Web History here [you must be signed in to a Google account to view this page]. You can turn off search history personalization by following instructions here.

To see who’s tracking you as you surf the Web, install a Firefox add-on called Collusion; it’s eye-opening!

For more reading on the NSA and privacy, read Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram Newsletter; always fascinating!

How your privacy can be invaded …

Posted: June 22, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Privacy, Social media
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This article about how you give up your privacy from CNN is eye-opening, http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/living/buzzfeed-data-mining/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

I tried the link listed in the article http://youarewhatyoulike.com/. I thought their specific findings were interesting although not all that accurate.

Data Mining Is Scary

How does shopping affect my privacy?

I like the products that Target carries and the stores are usually clean and well-stocked. You can even sometimes find a clerk to help you when you need one. But I am seriously creeped out by the amount of data they carry on each person who shops there. A couple of weeks ago, I bought some items at Target and the clerk was very aggressive about getting me to sign up for their “REDcard.” The REDcard is a Target-branded debit card that allows you to save an extra 5% on your purchases from their stores. I declined, saying  I wanted to find out more information before I signed up and I was also in a hurry, but the clerk kept pushing, which only reinforced my decision not to sign up. My husband was surprised at my decision because I like to save money. But I value my privacy and I also don’t like feeling I’m being railroaded into a hasty decision that I might regret later.

When I got home, I immediately started researching the Target REDcard. I am not the only person to find their data-mining tactics offensive. If you’re interested, you can read this NY Times article on how organizations data mine an individual’s shopping habits http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=5&ref=business&pagewanted=all&

Credit.com also wrote a series of articles on the Target REDcard:

What’s the bottom line?

  1. Read those pesky agreements that you receive when you sign up for any kind of debit/credit card. If you don’t like the terms, don’t accept the card.
  2. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some great articles on protecting your privacy. I highly recommend “4 Simple Changes to Stop Online Tracking.”
  3. You can remove tracking cookies specific to a website by following these directions http://www.ehow.com/how_6367641_remove-amazon-tracking-cookies.html or you can decide not to accept any third-party cookies.
  4. Install browser tools such as Ghostery or AdBlockPlus, and enable Do Not Track.
  5. Here’s an article on how to opt out of Facebook’s ads http://gizmodo.com/5989550/how-to-opt-out-of-facebooks-new-targeted-ads

Child Identity Theft

Posted: June 21, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in First Steps, Identity theft
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Do you check your child’s credit reports?

It’s really important that you check your child’s credit report while he or she is a child because a child whose identity is stolen can have problems finding a job, getting credit, or renting a place to live after they become an adult. The older the records, the more difficult they are to clean up. How can someone get credit in the name of a juvenile? Credit reporting agencies do not have a foolproof way to check age when financial information is posted, so it is difficult for them to know that the victim is a child.

And what if your school has a data breach? Yes, that happens. You can check different types of breaches that have been made public at http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach

Also think about what information you allow to be public about your children … on Facebook, at schools or school events, through Twitter.

For more information about protecting your child’s identity, consult the Identity Theft Resource Center article on “Identity Theft and Children.” http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/v_fact_sheets/Fact_Sheet_120.shtml The FTC also has a very good article on child identity theft at http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0040-child-identity-theft

NSA peepers

Posted: June 9, 2013 by IntentionalPrivacy in Cell phone, Privacy, Social media
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Coming on the heels of the Verizon snooping story last week is a remarkable article by The Washington Post that alleges the NSA collects data, codenamed “PRISM,” from “Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html Make sure you watch the video also.

Then there’s the AP surveillance case, which you can read about here.

One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, Sneakers, is where Cosmo says “There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think… it’s all about the information!”

Yes, I believe that’s true.

Business Insider wrote another article here about a statement issued by US Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., which declares PRISM is used lawfully to gather foreign intelligence.

What can you do about snooping?

  • Don’t use Facebook, Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Skype, YouTube, etc.
  • Maintain your super secret data on an encrypted computer running something like SELinux using TEMPEST technologies that never connects to the Internet. Never!
  • Don’t use a cell phone to make important calls and don’t carry a cell phone with you. In fact, don’t make important calls from land lines either.
  • Have your super secret conversations in person in a windowless room that you’ve swept for bugs.
  • You ought to be shredding your discarded paperwork anyway!

I mean, I could go on … but is any of this practical? Not really (except for the shredding).

The ACLU says:

In 2012, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) wrote, “When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they are going to be stunned and they are going to be angry.”

Am I surprised about the WP expose article? No. The sad thing? Do I feel safer because of this snooping? No, not really. Yes, I understand that there have to be tradeoffs between privacy and security.

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