Concerned about Credit Card Security? If You're Not, You Should Be Corning NY

Cybercrime is on the rise, and even though security measures have become more sophisticated than ever, so has the resourcefulness of hackers in finding their way around them. While credit card fraud due to lost or stolen credit cards has been going down over the past five years, losses from stolen credit card information is on the rise, as are losses from identify theft.

A watershed event was a so-called “zero day attack” launched by cybercriminals in December 2008. “Zero day” means that the attack exploits a security vulnerability on the exact day on which the vulnerability is exposed. The software company then has “zero days” to issue a patch to fix it. In December, cybercriminals managed to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 to enter into unsuspecting consumers’ computers through the back door. The security flaw enabled hackers to use hidden computer code, which they injected into more than 10,000 perfectly legitimate websites, to take over victim’s machines and infect them with malware and spyware. Hackers could then remotely activate malware to, e.g., steal the computer user’s passwords, credit card numbers and other vital personal information.

Although Microsoft took quick action to patch the breach, zero day attacks are some of the most worrisome security breaches to come along in decades. Not only was the assault huge, but more disturbingly, this was an entirely new avenue through which malware was introduced onto the computers of unsuspecting internet browsers. ...

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