$40,000,000 or 40,000,000 Credit Cards? I'd Take the Credit Cards!

In the old days, it was simple. You looked money over carefully to make sure it wasn't counterfeit BEFORE you accepted it. You safeguarded it in your purse or wallet, or tucked it under your mattress. You watched it like a hawk, where ever you put it. Money was a tangible thing. You could see it, feel it, smell it if you wanted to. No more.

Today, money is represented by electronic notations in a computer somewhere. Hackers, who could be staring at the dim glow of a computer screen anywhere in the world, can luck out and steal your credit card number. You might not lose any money, but you sure could be put through an emotional wringer until the charges against your card are forgiven.

The enormity of this week's compromise of 40,000,000 credit card numbers is hard to fathom.

"There's no excuse for this," said Avivah Litan, a Gartner Inc. expert on the security of financial data. "This takes the cake."

It didn't take long for the politicians to begin weighing in, too, hoping to curry favor with worried cardholders.

"Hardly a week goes by without startling new examples of breaches of sensitive personal data reminding us how important it is to pass a comprehensive identity-theft prevention bill in Congress quickly," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who has sponsored a consumer data protection law.

As for me, I'm listening to the advice of the experts and will watch my statement very carefully for fraudulent charges. Even if money isn't always tangible today, those electronic notations that represent money are just as spendable as the green paper and shiny coins of yesteryear!

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