EasyList Forum

Breach Exposes 4.2M Credit, Debit Cards

A security breach at an East Coast supermarket chain exposed more than 4 million card numbers and led to 1,800 cases of fraud, the Hannaford Bros. grocery chain announced Monday.

Hannaford said credit and debit card numbers were stolen during the card authorization process and about 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed, placing the case among the largest data breaches ever.

The breach affected all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida, and a smaller number of independent groceries that sell Hannaford products.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080317/retail_data_breach.html

I saw this yesterday. Thank god we shop there and just write checks.

The benefits of paying with cash: it's anonymous and secure.

You could get mugged

In that case, they'd get my credit and debit cards anyway. But I'd know that the theft happened and cancel them a.s.a.p., instead of finding out 3 months later (has Hannaford notified the affected customers or just made a general announcement?). Carrying cash has its risks, too, but the scope of the loss is much more limited.

Looks like somebody wasn't spending enough time on system security:

Malware to blame in supermarket data breach
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905991-7.html

That's why I am so leary about using any electronic cash transactions ... but it almost HAS to be done one way or another.

Except with cash ;) I know what your saying though.. but there is ways. lol

Unfortunately, you have to submit personal info for different things every now and then. Even if you do everything in person and non-electronically ... someone else will put it on a computer. There is no safety

Good point and correct. I tell my parents this with paying bills online.. all the bank stuff is online anyway, even if they don't use online services at all.