Hannaford Data Breach is Likely Much Worse Than Reported

By PatB
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Hannaford Brothers Supermarkets, a large New England grocery store chain, reported that they suffered a data breach.  The store’s network was penetrated and hackers were listening in during credit card authorizations.  Already, there are 1,800 confirmed cases of fraud associated with the breach.  At risk are 4.2 Million additional credit card accounts.

From WBZ here:

A security breach at an East Coast supermarket chain exposed 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers and led to 1,800 cases of fraud, the Hannaford Bros. grocery chain announced Monday. Credit and debit card numbers were stolen during the card authorization process and about 4.2 million unique account numbers were exposed.

The breach affected all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida and a smaller number of independent groceries that sell Hannaford products.

Hannaford became aware of the breach Feb. 27. Investigators later discovered that the data breach began on Dec. 7; it wasn’t contained until March 10, said Carol Eleazer, Hannaford’s vice president of marketing in Scarborough.

“We have taken aggressive steps to augment our network security capabilities,” Hannaford president and CEO Ronald C. Hodge said in a statement released Monday.

The company urged its customers to monitor their credit and debit cards for unusual transactions and report any problems to authorities.

I happen to speak fluent security-breach double speak.   When Hannaford says that the breach began on December 7th, they mean they only have logs dating back that far.  When the CEO says they are taking aggressive steps to augment their network security, he really means that they are going to get a firewall, an IDS, and start segmenting their database from the rest of the network like they are supposed to do.

And when the Vice President of Marketing gets quoted in the press talking about the security breach, it means that there is no CIO (Chief Information Officer) at the company.  It means their network was designed haphazardly with only a minimal thought to security.  What, they couldn’t get a quote from the President of Marketing?  How does the dairy stocker in store 413 feel about the breach?  He probably knows as much about network security as the Marketing VP.

All of this means that as the days go on, you will see more and more headlines talking about this breach being much worse than originally thought. The number of fraud cases will climb precipitously… and no one will be fired from Hannaford.

If you shop there and have used a credit card, get a copy of your credit report ASAP.

By law, you get one free credit report per year. You can contact them below.

Equifax: 800-685-1111; www.equifax.com

Experian: 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742); www.experian.com

TransUnion: 800-916-8800; www.transunion.com

If unauthorized changes in your credit reports are detected, you may be a victim of identity theft. A great resource to help guide you in recovery from identity theft is at the FTC here.



First Life, Second Life, Third Life, more

Elron-SL-poster-02By Lyle Bateman
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

My comedy and geek sides have been meshing a bit more lately. About a month ago, I popped into Second Life again, after trying it a couple of times a year or so ago and giving up on it. At the time I first signed up, the interface was very primitive, and truth be told, I was never able to quite “see the point” of the game. However, as my comedy career has unfolded over the past year, I’ve been thinking more and more of trying to find a venue online where I can showcase some of my work. YouTube and MySpace are fine for videos, but there aren’t a whole lot of places where you can easily do a “live show” online as well as easily generate an audience for it.

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BigDog Robotic Mule withstands beating while keeping its balance

Built by Boston Dynamics, the BigDog robot is a four legged robotic mule which can carry up to 340 pounds on its back over almost any terrain. As you’ll see in the following video, this DARPA-funded device can withstand a good kick on the side and walk over ice while keeping its balance. Before hitting the play button, you might want to lower your speaker’s volume a bit; the robot’s engine could be qualified as… noisy, if not to say downright annoying.



You’re an internet addict. Yes, you.

By Ilya Kochanov
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

According to some doctors with big weird eyebrows and some kind of doctorate, excessive internet usage might soon be classified as an actual mental disease.

Never mind the fact that people, such as myself, earn money by going online. Or that corporations, banks, and schools rely heavily on the internet for virtually every aspect of their business. Withdrawal is listed as one of the characteristics of an addiction and it just so happens that you might start freaking out if you’re waiting for an email from a potential employer, and urgently need to get to a computer.

John MacDonald, an addiction therapist in Toronto says that a person is classified as an “internet addict” when being away from their computer is “emotionally upsetting”. I don’t know about you but if I couldn’t go online to check urgent email, check my bank account, and stay in touch with friends, I’d be very pissed.

I am just going to go ahead and say that frankly, this is incredibly stupid. Forget the irony of the fact that these doctors will most likely post their findings online, and forget that most of our sensitive affairs are handled via the interwebz. I will say this though: content of questionable appropriateness is quite addictive.

Hit the link for the full story.

Addicted to being productive and staying up-to-date?

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Gamer’s Tools Review: Logitech G15 Keyboard and G9 Mouse

Peripherals are a gamer’s best friend. They’re the tools of his trade. You might even say that they are like a Jedi’s light saber, or King Arthur’s Excalibur. Maybe even a pizza delivery guy’s car.

Without these tools, we wouldn’t be able to control the machines which we invest thousands of dollars in. If you’ve got a few grand under your desk, spending a little more on some badass peripherals is perfectly justifiable.

Today, I’m going to take a look at the best gaming keyboard and mouse currently on the market; the G15 keyboard, and G9 mouse. Logitech was kind enough to send me these two slick products so that I can put them through their paces, and show you guys what I really loved.

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NET-2000 allows you to catch criminals just like Spiderman! (Video)

The NET-2000 shooting net rod is a device that uses compressed air to fire a 52 square foot net at fleeing crooks from up to 49 feet away. If you’re a Spiderman fan and have always wished to become a super hero, this is the chance you’ve been waiting for to impersonate our web-launching friend.

The NET-2000 is available at Chinagrabber for only $419, but before buying one, check with your local police department to see if carrying this kind of device around is legal!

Expensive Wii is still just a Wii

We here at GeeksAreSexy aren’t really into bedazzled electronics like those Lindsay Lohan types. In fact, we pretty much despise anything pink, sparkly, or alive. This Wii is pretty cool though.

It was originally awarded to winners of Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament and was created by Crystal Icing. It will run you about $4,000 but might never be available for sale due to the unique nature of its design. Surely if you really do want one of these, a quick email and some credit card information later, your friends will be laughing at you.

Or you can man up, buy a Wii and an airbrush, then get to work. Of course you can always just play games on it and stuff.

The Brawl to End Them All… [via Kotaku]

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Armari’s eXtreme Concept Prototype might almost run Crysis

Every now and again some obscure computer manufacturer releases a feat of hardware engineering so awesome, that it can only be purchased for about the same price as a down payment on your new house.

The XCP is packed with twin quad-core CPU’s running at 3.2GHz and is capable of utilizing up to four graphics cards. No details yet regarding the hard drive space or RAM situation, however, a cool $20,000 tag says it will probably be sufficient for your needs. It’s all stuffed into a case designed solely for the purpose of cooling the components with liquid nitrogen and just happens to look like something out of Galactica.

It doesn’t seem as if the price is justified though considering you can probably build the same thing sans nitrogen for a few thousand if not less. Nitrogen cooling isn’t exactly new to the world of computing as overclockers and PC enthusiasts have been doing it for years. Granted, their systems are probably far more dangerous. It’s pretty cool if you think about it though, considering the short list of people who can proudly say that they own a computer cooled by an unstable chemical substance. Water-cooling eat your heart out.

Hit the link for a few more pictures and a nice description of the story behind this monster.

Armari’s super computer-in-a-box seeks to reinvigorate industry

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Make perfect prints of Wikipedia articles with Lexisum

By Mark O’Neill

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Wikipedia has always been my number one reference source (where else can you find out everything you need to know about Eric Cartman?) but it is an absolute bitch when it comes to printing off articles. First you have to find a way to remove all the images (up to now I have been using the Firefox extension Aardvark which works reasonably well) plus you have all the links messing the text up. Not exactly the nicest way to print off articles and pass them off as your own work at college (OK, THAT was a joke before anyone starts ganging up on me in the comments!).

This is where Lexisum enters the picture. By entering your search term on the site, the relevant Wikipedia page can be brought up and you can specify your print style. You can preview what it will look like and if you like what you see, you can then hit the print button. It will then spit out a nicely printed version of the page – minus images and minus links.

To give you an idea of what it is like, here is the Lexisum version of the first paragraph of the Nicholas II Wikipedia page :

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