Hackers Steal Card Data from Neiman Marcus | Hacker News Reader

Hackers Steal Card Data from Neiman Marcus

krebsonsecurity.com

22 pointsteawithcarl10 comments

Oh man, you know the limits on some of those cards are sky high and their spending patterns are already extravagant. What a jackpot.

Name of store is "Neiman-Marcus", not Nieman

This is a rhetorical question, but tell me, do the credit card issuers even lift, er, I mean, care about security?

The company most probably doesn't store credit card numbers. It's not clear what was stolen and how.

Yet another reason to pay with a credit card and not debit card.

...if only there was a way to buy stuff on the internet without giving out sensitive data to merchants that can be used for fraudulent purposes...

cough cryptocurrencies cough

Given that most people's computers are a cesspit of malware, I hardly think that Bitcoin is going to save the masses from theft. In fact, it makes it worse because there's no recourse if your wallet gets sent to an address you've never heard of. In the article's situation the issuer just leans on their insurance and the user doesn't ever see a negative side.

> Given that most people's computers are a cesspit of malware..

...so instead we should put it on Nieman-Marcus' cesspit of malware?

> the issuer just leans on their insurance...

"Cars are better than horses because then there isn't shit all over the streets."

"No, horses are better because we just pay people to pick up the shit."

I'm quite fond of Bitcoin, but to say it's usable is a bit much. I feel a lot more comfortable in a world where I am insured verses sorting money in paper wallets and exchanging through websites with crazy security theatre and not much else. The crypto is strong but the community and support is weak to non existent.

The end point is that Nieman-Marcus' breach won't financially effect a single person thanks to insurance, had it been a bunch of Bitcoin private keys compromised then we'd have a completely different, more disastrous situation.

There's no question a lot more needs to be done before cryptocurrencies are ready for mass adoption, but at least a path is now forged for addressing ecommerce theft. Can't wait until a decent hardware wallet is available, precisely for the reasons you describe.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com