April 17,2009
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An Obvious Credit Card Leak, Pt.1
A time to be silent, a time to speak...One would think after all these years, credit card security experts would have patched up the obvious leaks. It seems like even a young schoolboy would know better. A simple Google search will bring up consumer credit card accounts. As recently as three weeks ago, as many as 20,000 credit cards were exposed from a defunct heist on a Vietnamese server and discovered by an Australian. How could this still be happening when experts agree it could be stopped at trivial expense?
How is it done? Well, you might as well know...everyone else does. As a convention in the credit card industry, the first eight digits of a standard 16-digit PAN (Personal Account Number) format represent the particular credit card lender's identification as well as the partnered association (like VISA or MasterCard). So, using a simple Google search for a number sequence which fits this pattern, exposes PANs with consumers' sensitive card data and delivers them to your doorstep (or desktop).
To a thief, "This is the stuff dreams are made of". Dashiell Hammett would have a field day. Now, don't do this at home, folks. I just had to renew one of my credit cards yesterday for compromise. No, it didn't cost me anything but it's still wrong. So, don't do it. Many active cards, it's reported, are still vulnerable. No, I'm not giving away any secrets here, thousands of people knew about it even before me. Robert Lemos, for one, publicized it on C-Net about four years ago. All the tricks and techniques have become public domain, so I won't feed the fire any further.
The point here, is to make credit card consumers aware of this danger and demand that the industry protect us better. I don't know why it's been allowed to go on so long but I suppose it's because not enough people have complained about it.