Security Karma: Using credit cards at airport kiosks is as safe using them anywhere else... which isn't saying much.

Bob Sullivan wrote a post titled "Are airline kiosks safe?" for The Red Tape Chronicles at msnbc.com last week that made me frown when I first read it. (Note: I'll give Bob Sullivan credit... at least he tried to be balanced, read on). On July 24th the The Toronto Star broke a story titled "Airports a natural target for credit card fraud: Expert." Ok, airports are a target... so are discount retail chains and grocery stores... what's with the title? It turns out that Visa was investigating "isolated fraud incidents" that were occurring when people used the cards to check in to their flights and get their boarding passes. What drives me nuts is that the article spends almost 500 words scaring the bejeebus out of people when right in the middle of the article there is this gem of a quote:

"WestJet has cautioned against pinning the blame solely on the kiosks until the investigation is complete."

Eh? They didn't really know where the fraud was originating from, the banks (which do not usually have detailed information regarding POS (Point of Sale) location or IT infrastructure of organizations) were guessing that the kiosks was a logical place to start looking. Makes sense to me. But then the UPI picked up on the story with the albeit better title "Toronto airport credit card scam probed." Unfortunately, this article also takes the tact that it's better to scare people about swiping your card than emphasize that the banks were investigating whether there was something to investigate.

Well, not long after the UPI story came out the security and travel blogosphere grabbed the ball and ran. With titles like these who wouldn't be scared about checking in at a kiosk?

Does using your credit card to check-in expose you to fraud?

Airport kiosks may be stealing your credit card info

Beware of credit card fraud at Toronto’s airport ticket kiosks

Credit Card Fraud At The Airport (with authority FTW!)

Ok, ok, I know what you're thinking, it's better to spread the word about possible fraud than to keep it quiet and let people continue to be at risk. Fine. I agree... although I think by upping the hyperbole you spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) and damage the airports, the kiosk owners, and the airlines. Let's stick to the facts and leave the outrageous headlines out (except for the last one I listed above... if a reader of "Nuttin' But Pimp" takes anything on that site seriously... well then send me an email because do I have some offers for you!

Why am I picking on this particular news item? Well, just a few days after the initial story broke (five (5) days to be exact) cbc news reported that "No fraud linked to Toronto Pearson airport kiosks." Yes, that's right... they did an audit and found that there are "no confirmed cases of fraud currently at [Pearson] airport kiosks."

I scoured the blogosphere for follow-up articles giving the "all clear" to let people use credit cards in addition to their passports or PNR numbers to check into their flight. I could only find a few stories in the Canadian press about it. At least there will be one article out there spreading the good news. Swiping your credit card (CC) at an airport kiosks is just as dangerous as storing your CC information online, swiping it at the grocery store, handing it to a waiter at a resteraunt, etc. In other words, not really all that safe at all but convenient.

Shout out to Howard for sending me the msnbc post.

Edit: Fixed some spelling and cleaned up the language a bit.

Security Karma

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Using credit cards at airport kiosks is as safe using them anywhere else... which isn't saying much.

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