This is kind of hard to believe but it now appears that hackers were able to steal information from a Marshalls discount store by hacking into a unsecured wireless network. The investigation into one of the largest data theft crimes has lead investigators to trace the originally break in to a Marshalls store located in St. Paul , Minnesota. The bad guys who may have used a directional antenna taped into the non-secure wireless system, and then were able to attack the servers which kept customer information and access millions of records without even being detected.

Now we can hammer on TJ Max until the cows come home about their violating the rules of networking 101. But what is really disturbing is the thought of how insecure other companies may be in handling our personal information. We expect and deserve to have our personal information securely protected and kept out of the hands of criminals. But just how secure is our information?

Case in point. I had some thoughts about this when I was flying out of San Francisco this week to catch a hop through Chicago. I had booked my airline flights, hotel room and rental car through Orbitz, and saved about $200 in the process by getting a package discount. The airline flights are handled electronically and when you arrive at the ticket counter you just slide in your credit card and your tickets are printed out for you. As I was doing this the thought hit me that I have provided this ‘machine’ with every piece of my personally information minus my SS#, that I have. Heck I was even alerted by Orbit on my cell phone 3 hours before my flights to confirm the gate I was leaving from as well as any flight delays.

Scary thought. How secure is my information? I didn’t have a clue.

What are your thoughts? Have we gone to far for the sake of convenience and provide to much information to machines that can be easily hacked? Or am I just paranoid?

Comments welcome.

Tags: tj max, wireless, hacked, network, unsecure