It turns out there are many businesses, big businesses (like Boston Pizza, Husky, and Starbucks) that may not be taking the proper precautions to safeguard against this new age crime. Thieves are no longer breaking in to shops to steal the cash out of drawers but rather to steal the hard drive out of these swiping terminals, and many of those big name companies listed above have had numerous break-ins of this kind.
The thing is... they are not telling us!! Of course they are not under any legal obligation to either, so they often sweep these incidences under the rug. What they are supposed to do is ensure those registers have their information erased at the end of every day after they close down their tills, but many of them are not. Watch the video as one security expert finds over 400 credit and debit card numbers from just one POS terminal.
It's scary! So why is our information not being erased every day? Good question. There does not seem to be an explanation for it, except maybe laziness. You would think an automated erasure program could be scheduled to run after each close-out of the day, or at the very least have the information captured in a secure way that uses encryption to hide those numbers.
The bottom line is... maybe it really is best to pay with cash as often as possible. Nothing is more anonymous than a couple green backs and some silver when it comes to making purchases!
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