Are you booked in a hacker-friendly hotel? When checking in, ask the owner or manager to show you the hotel’s “Attestation of Compliance,” a document that the business is required to have, which shows that it met minimum standards for data security as of the date of the report. We see no reason why any business should hide this document from paying customers who give them their personal and payment card information. If the hotel can’t or won’t show you its AOC, pay by credit card instead of debit card, because, if the hotel attracts a security breach, its easier to resolve unauthorized credit charges and replace a compromised card than it is to repair debit card fraud, which can drain funds from your underlying checking account and set off a cascade of overdraft fees and late payment charges. Avoid paying by debit card at suspect hotels. But if you must use your debit card, use it as a credit card, which means that you select the “credit” option on many card readers—even though you’re using a debit card—and sign to authorize your payment instead of punching in a PIN number. Some terminals don’t give you the “credit” option; with these, you swipe your card, then, when you’re prompted to provide a PIN, press “cancel” and tell the cashier you want to sign for your transaction. Yes, hackers could still steal your data, clone your debit card, and use it like a credit card—just as you did—to make unauthorized charges, but they wont have your PIN to withdraw cash via an ATM.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 15:51:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015