I am sure by now you have heard of major companies being hit with security breaches and credit card information being compromised, places P.F. Chang’s, Target, and Michael’s craft store are just a few stores hit by recent security breaches. It can be a very scary thought when companies you have grown to love and trust become unsecure, even if it is just for a minute. The great thing about security breaches is that we learn, we become stronger, smarter, and more adept at preventing future issues, and not just for that one company but the world as a whole.
The biggest thing the corporate world can do now is learn, we now know that localized credit card machines are not as safe as we thought and are working diligently to make them safer. On Target’s website they are quoted saying “We closed the access point that the criminals used when we discovered the breach.” With P.F. Chang’s the card processing system was compromised and needed to have fixes applied. While the companies are being relatively tight lipped for security reasons, what we can ascertain from the little information we have is that the centralized processing units for the credit cards became less than secure and a few hackers took advantage of the weakness.
As a consumer there are multiple ways to go about securing yourself. P.F. Chang’s and Target both suggested watching your bills and seeing if there is anything suspicious going on. They are suggesting this because it is uncertain how much information the hackers got from each person, sometimes they only got a name, other times they got a full card number and address. If you recently dined at P.F. Chang’s they will allow you to have the credit bureau’s place a fraud alert on your card for no charge. However, if you find yourself a little uncomfortable with the wait and see approach, give your bank a call, they will gladly reissue a new card with a new number.
you can view the Target’s FAQ here https://corporate.target.com/about/shopping-experience/payment-card-issue-FAQ#q5888.
