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Vote "No Confidence" In SSL SSL Encryption - My Mother Was Hacked?
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I received a frantic email a week or so back from my mother. While this wasn’t unusual, this wasn’t typical motherly report of which sibling did what stupid thing. She’d been hacked, or so she claimed. While I found it unlikely that she was hacked in any manner that I define word, my curiosity was piqued so I gave her a call to find out exactly what happened.
Electronic Debit Card Theft
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As it turns out, someone had filched her debit card number and was using an ISP in former Soviet Union to sign up for several “singles” websites. Unfortunately, way she found out was discovering a negative balance in her checking account. To her credit, she had already contacted her bank and had card frozen. She had also contacted websites involved and was in process of resolving debts with them.
Knowing details, I was comfortable that my mother hadn’t been hacked, but someone with whom she has done business with had their customer data compromised in some way. Not wanting to ignore my familial and professional responsibilities, I gave her computer a once over. It came up clean with exception of typical doubleclick and adserver cookies. Taking it a step further I decided to dig up a couple of “Tips for secure web surfing” links for her perusal.
Debit Cards, A Direct Link To Your Money
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I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed in results of my search. While there was plenty of good advice available there were two things I found troublesome. The first was while most sites highly recommended using credit cards exclusively for online purchases; only one site stressed danger of using debit cards. A debit card is a direct link into your checking or savings account. Unlike a credit card, where a fraudulent charge can be disputed and issuer will place a hold on debt, once you reach point of disputing a debit card transaction, money is already gone.