Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

For the mysterious data breach crime folder, the U.S. Secret Service is investigating a series of payment card thefts—originating at an Alabama Dairy Queen—that has only been impacting debit cards. The Hanceville, Ga., police department’s Capt. Jimmy Rodgers is quoted in a local newspaper saying: “At that location, somebody has apparently tapped into the Internet server and hacked into the debit card system, and they’re printing out the customers’ debit card numbers and using them all over California and Georgia.”

This is a disturbing trend, as retailers see debit card approaches as a way to try and reduce interchange costs. It’s even more frightening when we factor in that debit cards are more likely to suffer a processing glitch—as Best Buy and Macy’s discovered last year–than credit cards and that consumers impacted by a debit card data breach are far more exposed than they would have been had they used a credit card.