The hot swappable life

by. Ron Daly

A business associate was telling me a crazy story just the other day. He was holding out his credit card to pay for lunch and I noticed it was a shiny, newly-issued card.

“Just get that card?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, glumly. I was confused.

“Why do you sound so sad about it? You just got a brand new card.”

“This is my fourth issue of this card,” he said. “Our account information has been compromised four times now.”

You could’ve knocked me over with a feather. Four times?! He explained that the first time, the card was cloned and used to make several cash withdrawals up and down the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The second time it yielded no charges, but the bank reissued the card to be on the safe side, owing to a hacking attempt they had suffered. The third time the card was issued was because of the Target breach. The fourth was related to another internal breach that occurred recently.

What was so shocking about the most recent reissue, he told me, was how quickly it happened. The card company called his wife on a Friday to tell them about the breach and the reissue. Their cards were deactivated as early as Friday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, there was a knock at their front door. A postal worker (yes, from the Post Office…yes, that Post Office) handed him an envelope. Inside was a new set of cards from the bank.

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