Who's Minding the Store: Analysis
Who is Minding the Store?:
Analysis:
As seen in the video, criminals stealing hard drives from commercial establishments is becoming more common and holds the opportunity for criminals to steal hundreds of individuals’ credit and debit card information. This growing trend puts the consumer at risk for extra charges on their credit and debit cards as well as identify theft. What is even more surprising is that consumers are unaware of the true risks that are involved in using their card at terminals in stores. Moreover, even though businesses are to swipe the hard drives clean each day, many are failing to complete this proper procedure to prevent consumer’s stolen information. To add, where the consumer’s information was compromised is not made available to the consumer.
Retailers must do more to ensure that POS terminals are cleared of credit and debit card information daily. Erica Johnson, CBC, points out that POS terminals process millions of dollars’ worth of transactions every day. Unfortunately, retailers are not regularly wiping clean the hard drives that store the data, as they are supposed to.
"Ninety five per cent of the [terminals] that I actually see do have data on them," said Ryan Purita of Vancouver-based Sherlock Forensics. "So, although … the consumer may think their data is safe, it isn't." It was unanimous; of the individuals who were interviewed in the video, none were aware that their credit and debit card information was being stored.
Vancouver Crown prosecutor Peter Stabler, who has tried numerous credit card fraud cases, believes retailers have a responsibility to protect their customers. "Business practices have to change and adapt to prevent this on the front line," said Stabler. A system that relies on the retailers to manually wipe the data is clearly not working.
According to the Retail Council of Canada, protecting the consumer’s information is more difficult than people think. "We're getting phone calls every day from
Analysis:
As seen in the video, criminals stealing hard drives from commercial establishments is becoming more common and holds the opportunity for criminals to steal hundreds of individuals’ credit and debit card information. This growing trend puts the consumer at risk for extra charges on their credit and debit cards as well as identify theft. What is even more surprising is that consumers are unaware of the true risks that are involved in using their card at terminals in stores. Moreover, even though businesses are to swipe the hard drives clean each day, many are failing to complete this proper procedure to prevent consumer’s stolen information. To add, where the consumer’s information was compromised is not made available to the consumer.
Retailers must do more to ensure that POS terminals are cleared of credit and debit card information daily. Erica Johnson, CBC, points out that POS terminals process millions of dollars’ worth of transactions every day. Unfortunately, retailers are not regularly wiping clean the hard drives that store the data, as they are supposed to.
"Ninety five per cent of the [terminals] that I actually see do have data on them," said Ryan Purita of Vancouver-based Sherlock Forensics. "So, although … the consumer may think their data is safe, it isn't." It was unanimous; of the individuals who were interviewed in the video, none were aware that their credit and debit card information was being stored.
Vancouver Crown prosecutor Peter Stabler, who has tried numerous credit card fraud cases, believes retailers have a responsibility to protect their customers. "Business practices have to change and adapt to prevent this on the front line," said Stabler. A system that relies on the retailers to manually wipe the data is clearly not working.
According to the Retail Council of Canada, protecting the consumer’s information is more difficult than people think. "We're getting phone calls every day from