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Point-of-sale: Are using these terminals high risk?
- March 15, 2010 1:11 PM |
- By POV
Thieves are accessing personal financial information using the old-fashioned smash-and-grab method, but what they're grabbing are point-of-sale terminals, not merchandise.
CBC-TV's Marketplace has learned that many retailers are not helping the situation because they leave valuable information on the terminals where customers swipe their debit and credit cards when paying for purchases instead of wiping the data each night as they're supposed to.
It's the equivalent of leaving the store vault open and full of cash, except the cash is credit and debit card data, said RCMP Det. John Koppes of Abbotsford, B.C., who is the Mounties' computer crime specialist.
There are more than 630,000 point-of-sale terminals in Canada used by big and small companies alike. Consumers use them when paying for everything from groceries to gas to restaurant meals.
Read more:
Point-of-sale terminals: Do you use these machines on a regular basis? Are you concerned about your debit or credit card information being stolen? Take our poll:
CBC-TV's Marketplace has learned that many retailers are not helping the situation because they leave valuable information on the terminals where customers swipe their debit and credit cards when paying for purchases instead of wiping the data each night as they're supposed to.
It's the equivalent of leaving the store vault open and full of cash, except the cash is credit and debit card data, said RCMP Det. John Koppes of Abbotsford, B.C., who is the Mounties' computer crime specialist.
There are more than 630,000 point-of-sale terminals in Canada used by big and small companies alike. Consumers use them when paying for everything from groceries to gas to restaurant meals.
Read more:
Point-of-sale terminals: Do you use these machines on a regular basis? Are you concerned about your debit or credit card information being stolen? Take our poll:
(This poll is not scientific. It is based on readers' votes.)
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