According to BBC World News, a new hi-tech hacker threat is targeting self-checkout systems used by supermarkets in the United Kingdom. By using information gathered from a hacked banking line, credit card and debit card information will be used on fake cards to make withdraws and purchase high-priced items. These cards are linked to American financial institutions, posing not only a risk to the British, but also state-side. A so-called reformed hacker working for a British security company uncovered the scam on the Internet and the BBC has alerted the proper authorities to the situation.
The possible risk of an event like this happening does not have a profound effect on the world markets, but it does have the potential to be a large problem for those individuals whom the hackers stole card information. This also shows the potential risk of similar attacks across the globe, especially countries with high traffic-flow in airports , newly developed economies, and naturally those countries with the infrastructure of ATMs and self-checkout systems in place. Cybercrime and identity theft is a major technological issue of the 21st century. Hopefully the law-abiding citizens and the law enforcement agencies that serve them will be able to learn about and prevent such attacks, as the private sector was able to do this week. For those with credit and debit cards, this is a grim reminder of the price of the convenience of the modern world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7584258.stm
1 comment:
Although technology is a wonderful and conveinent asset to life in the twenty-first century, it comes with downfalls such as these. Realistically speaking, this sort of crime must go unpunished a gratuitous amount everywhere. There are far more stolen identity crimes that go undetected than not.
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