Retail "Bricks and Mortar" Stores Targeted by Cyber Criminals

Lax Security Costing Consumers Over 14 Billion

Major retail "bricks and mortars" stores are becoming high value targets for cyber criminals. That's right. Criminals are freely entering into your local store's physical location and stealing hundreds of thousands of identities, and are doing it without even the stores noticing.

How is that possible you ask? Identity thieves are now using a technique called "wardriving," or hacking into local stores' wireless networks and stealing customers credit and debt card numbers, drivers' licenses and bank account information right from the stores' databases. Surprisingly, this type of crime is very easy to commit. All you need is a laptop, wi-fi antenna and hacking software that are widely available for free on the Internet.

"Wardriving" is quickly becoming a new cyber crime trend that common criminals are using to steal millions of customers' financial information, and is responsible for the largest data breach in U.S. History, the TJX Company Case.

Last year, TJX realized that it fell prey to a "wardriving" scam that lasted over two years, and resulted in criminals stealing over 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers and exposed over 455,000 people to identity theft. According to a Utica College report each incident of ID Theft cost a victim on average $31,000. That means, in the end, the TJX Data Breach could cost its customers $14.2 billion in damages, which TJX is not obligated to pay for.

In fact, retail stores are not legally responsible for covering any losses that result from a data breach. Their customers, the banks and credit card companies pick up the bill for almost all the financial harm. In addition, current federal privacy laws do not allow the Federal Trade Commission to punish stores with major fines, if those stores don't "take reasonable steps" to secure their customers financial information.