For a store that’s logo is a giant bulls-eye, Target recently found itself in the crosshairs of some credit card thieves.
And, if you shopped at a physical Target location in the United States
between November 27th and December 15th and used a credit or a debit
card, your financial information may have been stolen as well. At the
end of the day, Target fears that the information from up to 40 million
debit and credit cards were stolen during that few week period. It
doesn’t matter where in the United States you shopped as Target is
seeing signs of fraud all over the country. This is definitely not the
kind of publicity Target was looking for during the 2013 Christmas
season.
This news is not something for shoppers to take lightly. If you are
one of the approximately 40 million people who used their credit or
debit card at Target between those dates, Target is encouraging you to
keep a close on all of the activity with your card(s). If you see
anything suspicious, you should definitely alert your financial
institution immediately. They are also recommending that you look at
your credit report every so often.
Just What Can The Thieves Do With Your Information?
According to Techland,
the thieves can use the magnetic stripe information from your card to
make fake cards which they can then use. If they were able to retrieve
your PIN number from a debit transaction, they would also (in theory) be
able to take out cash from ATM’s. What Target knows for sure the
thieves obtained were the names, credit card numbers, expiration dates,
and the CVV from the back of the cards.
What’s even more interesting with this large security breach is that
it appears there was some tampering with Target’s credit card machines
themselves. Obviously, Target has no idea how this happened and is
investigating with help from the Secret Service.
Target has offered affected customers discounts and free credit
monitoring. Was your account one of the 40 million that were stolen?
Source : Techland , TechBeat News
In spite of the heat on torrent sites,
as well as uploaders and downloaders, it seems that people are not
really deterred from carrying on. Even The Pirate Bay, the world’s most
resilient torrent site, continues to operate. Of course, we don’t know
how much longer they can resist with pressure coming from all sides.
Still, people who torrent do not seem all that concerned.
But, did you know that people actually get caught and are punished for torrenting?
Take this guy from Sweden. According to Torrent Freak:
A moderator and
uploader of one of Sweden’s oldest but now defunct private torrent sites
has been hit with a huge damages award. For uploading a single
pre-release movie the 28-year-old is now required to pay $652,000, the
equivalent amount the studio would have charged for a license to
distribute the movie for free. For sharing more than 500 others he
received a suspended jail sentence plus 160 hours community service.
It’s rather notable that the fine – more than half a million dollars –
is only for ONE movie. For the other movies he had shared, his
punishment is “merely” community service.
Now, if you’re thinking that you have not done anything of this sort
for years, you probably should not sit back and relax just yet. The
unlucky guy is facing the consequences of his actions many years back.
He used to be a moderator and uploader from April 2008 and November
2011. Many years later, he has been dubbed “Sweden’s “worst ever”
individual movie pirate”. And the law has caught up with him.
It does seem that this case is being highlighted as an example. There
are obviously many other individuals who have done the same thing,
whether on a smaller or larger scale, it doesn’t matter.
So what do you think of this? Does it make you wary about torrenting activities?
Source : TechBeat News
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