Reply #79: There was recently a report on 60 Minutes that showed...

[Minnesota_Lib]

...a few ways thieves can intercept your info. One way is by using a laptop with a wireless network card that enables them to intercept data off a store's wireless network that connects their point of sales devices to the main network.

Sneaky bastards.

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Do you think twice when typing in your credit card number online, but have no problem handing over your plastic card at a store? Well actually, you may have it backward. Your personal information may be more secure in cyberspace than at the mall down the road.

That's because it's easier for dot-coms to protect the data. And most stores in America underestimate how vulnerable they are.

<snip>


"This was a case of penetrating the network from without the stores because it is…a wireless network. You can then capture the wireless transmissions if they're not sufficiently encrypted," Stoddart says.

When you swipe your credit card, your data is often transmitted through a wireless router either to a bank for approval or to the store's main computer. But the signal carrying your information bleeds easily through the walls.

Stahl got her first lesson in something called "war driving" from Kris Harms, a computer forensic investigator for Mandiant, a computer security company, who showed her how hackers, outside in a van, can grab the stores' wireless data.

"So you and I are in this parking lot, and we park in front of one of these big stores. We can just pluck it, is what you're saying, right through the wall," Stahl remarked.

"Absolutely," Harms replied.

All you need, he says, is a regular computer; the software he got for free. Within moments, Stahl and Harms started getting results.

<more> http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/21/60minutes/mai...