Thursday, December 4, 2008

Wi-Fi Felons

A few weeks ago, I was watching “60 Minutes” which did a piece called “Hi-Tech Heist”. The report illustrated how volumes of credit card information of customers were stolen from TJX (the largest discount department store chain in the US). The culprits capitalized on the poor Wi-Fi security and the TJX practice of keeping customer information for too long. The reporter drove around the parking lot of a TJX store with a laptop and showed how easy it was to get into a poorly-secured system. The information is then sold piece-meal (per customer identity) to the highest bidder on a black market e-bay, so to speak.

The idea that my personal information is floating in the air up for grabs is disconcerting. If the government regulates radio waves with respect to radio, tv, and telecommunications, should they regulate the use of Wi-Fi? Is it even practicable? I mean, what’ll they do, require a license for all people who own Wi-Fi routers and Wi-Fi capable devices? Uh, I don’t think so.

So what’s the lesson here? Pay in cash.

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