Your Daily Computer Security Tips

A supermarket chain in Portland, Maine, has had its computer network broken into, and customer credit and debit card numbers stolen. The breech occurred at Hannaford Stores, as well as Sweetbay stores in Florida and other independent retailers in the northeastern U.S. that sell Hannaford products. In all, over 200 stores are involved.

No other personal information was lost in the theft, according to Hannaford, because thankfully, the company does not collect any. Loss of the card numbers was bad enough, I should think. The company is urging customers to watch their credit card and bank statements closely, for unauthorized charges. That is good advice for all of us, as about 1,800 fraud cases have resulted from this theft.

The theft is said to have occurred over the three months ending in mid-March, and involved thousands of credit and debit cards. In fact, up to 4.2 million cards are potentially at risk. The break-in happened during the card authorization process, so there is nothing you could have done to prevent loss of your card number.

Even so it is good practice not to let your card out of your sight during a purchase transaction.

What is even more worrisome is that Hannaford met industry standards for storing and maintaining customer data. These standards may have to be reviewed and rethought, once all the details of this latest breech are known.

Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online. He has been keeping Internet surfers safe and secure since the last century. Find out how he does it; protect your own computer with five layers of protection right here:
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