# Waiting for Datapocalypse



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Even the editor of Fortune gets it! 

Now, has he began his preps yet?!?!? 

Waiting for datapocalypse
February 6, 2014 ET

By Andy Serwer, managing editor of Fortune magazine

I connected the dots from what I initially thought were unrelated events over the past few days.

My AmEx card was refused for a $6 charge at Los Amigos car wash in Harlem. It seems that the ever attentive folks at American Express decided that I was in the wrong zip code -- all of 2.9 miles from my apartment, according to Google Maps -- that this constituted suspicious behavior, and that I might not be me.

I was renting cross-country skis from a ski shop with a friend who is a regular customer. Clerk asked friend for his name and address, and friend said, "I'm sure I'm in your system." Not so. "We don't keep customers' data," clerk replied sharply. "We're not the NSA."

A juicerista at a local juice bar suddenly announced that "the system is down, and we are accepting only cash." A groan arose from the line, and half the customers left.

At a restaurant I waited 20 minutes for friends who arrived late for dinner because the parking-meter readers kept rejecting their perfectly sound credit card. (Maybe they, too, were more than 2.9 miles from home.)

Get the picture? Besides giving you a glimpse into my humdrum existence, *the above brings home the point that our lives are increasingly governed and arbitrated by data and networks.*

Yes, of course, there have been unquantifiable gains in productivity, convenience, and happiness (ATMs! highway toll readers! Amazon!), and let me be clear that in no way am I any sort of "eLuddite", but it is important to recognize two points: First, the rate of change here -- and by "here" I mean the amount of our data and the number of our transactions occurring online -- is increasing lickety-split. And second, our ability to understand and control the consequences of this increasing change is not keeping up. The consequence gap is proving highly problematic. The potential magnitude was recently brought home with the breach of up to 110 million accounts at Target -- nearly the same number as total American households. But with all due respect to Target customers, this is more a matter of scope than of seriousness.

Last month I moderated a two-hour session at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Rethinking Personal Data, with all manner of seasoned and interested CEOs, academics, and NGO heads. It was amazing to me how broad and open-ended our conversation was -- from banking-transaction security to social network privacy to individuals' rights to telecom databases to government spying. Not surprisingly, guidelines, conclusions, and pretty bows were few and far between. *Again, this world is changing and growing so fast that we can't even understand it, never mind shape it.*

It made me curious to see what law enforcement's take was, and I found this: a Reuters story on a recent FBI report, "Recent Cyber Intrusion Events Directed Toward Retail Firms," where the FBI noted, "We believe POS malware crime will continue to grow over the near term, despite law enforcement and security firms' actions to mitigate it." Gee, guys, you think?

*The real shocker will be how and where our society is hit, and whether we can avoid some sort of Techmageddon that would, say, shut down the banking system for a week or cut off all power in the northern half of the country in the winter.*

Preposterous editorial fearmongering? 
Sadly, I say no. To me it's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when.

This story is from the February 24, 2014 issue of Fortune.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

This is a serious issue. We have a few stories from our own travels. We finally opened another account to have access to multiple accounts when on the road. There's a story behind that too.

I remember an article in TMEN years ago praising how much more financial security we'd have with electronic money instead of cash. I laughed at their optimistic outlook even back then (in the 80's) and cancelled my subscription about that time as well. By then they'd become pretty much useless for homesteading.


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## squerly (Aug 17, 2012)

It's funny (to me anyway) how the younger generation(s) use debit cards instead of cash. My son uses his debit card for everything under the sun, even McDonald's! It's not uncommon for him to be void of cash and completely dependent on going places that accept his debit card. Which btw is just about everywhere these days.

Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't want to be tracked like this, nor do I want to find out that the "powers that be" can turn my money on/off with the flick of a switch.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

A few months back were invited over to dinner at some friends house. They were talking about how the card reader had been down at the local grocery store and how the cash machine was down at the same time. Somehow they had it figured that it was the store's fault that this happened. Between the two of them they did not have enough cash to buy a bag of groceries. The store should be prepared for something like this but they couldn't be expected to have cash because, "Nobody carries cash nowadays." We did not straighten them out.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

OK

Work had a parking lot concreted. The low bid Contractor "forgot" to bring barricades. I found a Supplier that had barricades in one of their warehouses, a hour drive away. 

I placed the order and told them I'd pick them up. Supplier told me to wait at least an hour for my order to be processed thru their system. I waited 2 hours (including the hour drive).

When I arrived at the warehouse Clerk told me the warehouse computer printer was down and they was unable to print out my order for the warehouseman.

3 more hours I sat in their lobby, waiting. Clerk apologized. A Manager apologized. Enough is enough. I ask the Clerk, "Can you bring up my order on your computer screen?"

"Yes"

"Would you do so and copy down on a piece of paper the aisle, row and bin where the barricades are located? And then point me in the right direction and I'll get them myself."

Clerk gives me a strange look. Places a call. Manager comes in and takes a slip of paper from the Clerk and walks out into the warehouse. Manager comes back in and tells me my order is ready for me to pick up. :gaah:

I wouldn't need to take anger management classes if there wasn't so many IDIOTS OUT THERE!


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

I had to make a quick trip down to New Orleans last December. I was there three days and on the last night, I filled up the tank of my Suburban. It took $120 and when I went in to pay, I was told the debit card wouldn't go through. They had an ATM so I tried it, and even though a balance check said I had more than enough money to cover it, I couldn't withdraw any money. Turns out that Visa had decided that this transaction was suspicious and the card was flagged. Had I not had the cash, I would have been screwed.

We've made many trips to that area over the last 15 years (and a lot of other places) and never had a problem. We must now call Visa when ever we leave the area and let them know where and when we are going, to avoid them flagging our cards. I use the debit cards occasionally around the local area, but cash is king whenever I travel or make purchases on things like firearms, etc.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Though I use my credit card for every possible transaction, I always carry several hundred in cash on me at all times. At some point electronic money will stop. No matter what the cause cash will have full value at least for awhile. Having cash in your pocket could conceivably save your life (or at least make you more comfortable) at that time. It is just another prep item. If you never have to use the cash you carry then great.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Take note the last (boldest) sentence: 

He recognizes the fact that if the financial data stream can be compromised, then other data streams can be as well. 

He specifically relays his fear of a possible electrical grid shutdown. He also acknowledges "it's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when" (His words quoted, not mine)

I wonder how many readers of Fortune read his editorial and disregarded it.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

I remember having a conversation with my banker a number of years ago. She asked me if I wanted to put a line of credit on my debit card to serve as protection from overdrafts (with a very reasonable interest rate and associated fees). I told her that I rarely use my debit card and never use credit cards and that I was clearly not dumb enough to spend more money than I have. This led into a conversation about credit cards, loans and paying cash for everything. We've been paid cash for our last vehicle purchase. The personal banker was just appalled at this and was convinced that I would be murdered in the street for sums of hundred dollar bills. Then she looked up my credit score and implored me to use my credit cards more often to build up my credit score even higher. I informed her that I didn't give a crap what my credit score was because I didn't use credit. That I felt absolutely nothing about the way a group of financial institutions ranks my worthiness based on their desire to squeeze blood out of a turnip. I'm surprised she didn't pass out. Apparently wanting to use all of my money for me is an extremist viewpoint as clearly I should be reserving a portion for the bank to feed on. And as weird as it may seem, everyplace that I go to buy something with cash they always except it. Except hotels and car rental places of course. They always take cash for payment but expect me to put a credit card on file.

The reason corrupt and screwed up systems like the American financial market thrives is because people so easily submit to it and give them large amounts of power and authority over them. I know people who lose over a third of their income to interest and fees. Why would you only want 65% of your paycheck when you can have 100% of your paycheck? As far as the data apocalypse goes, and when that day comes many of us will get through it just fine. But far more people will suffer immensely.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

We always write a cheque at Costco, just to make sure that they learn about it, they used to try to give us American express applications so that we could get a card and use that, now they quit bothering us. the stupid look you get when you pay the full amount on the credit card (sometimes it is kind of big, since most wholesalers don't process cheques at the order desk anymore) My wife and I were at a store when part of the system went down, the cashier looked at us with a "don't yell at me look and said cash only" my wife smiled at her and handed her cash, she automatically punched in the total , but the system didn't do the calculation for her, panic , she looks around for a calculator, none, she asks the other staff if they can do the change, more blank looks. So I asked : can I show you a trick my grade one teacher showed us??
Grade one??
sure I guess.
OK take the purchase price, $14.56 then count pennies up to $14.60, add a dime to $14.70, add a nickel to $14.75, add a quarter to $15.00, add a five dollar bill to make the twenty we gave you. 
Big shocked eyes, you learned that in grade one?
yes.
Can you shoe that to the rest of the staff?
Sure.
more shocked eyes
Oh wow thank you so much......(you would think I gave them the formula to cold fusion)

that happened before every one had a smart phone with a monster calculator in it.

no one expects people to carry cash so it is probably safer now than when everybody did carry cash. 

I know my self when debit cards first came out I embraced the technology, still kept cash at home but often just used the card for most purchases, to the point that I often didn't have a quarter for the pay phone. (yeah back in the dark pay phone days)


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

Tirediron said:


> [snip]..to the point that I often didn't have a quarter for the pay phone. (yeah back in the dark pay phone days)


A few days ago I noticed a payphone outside of a local store the we visit very infrequently. I was shocked. Funny how fast things are changing these days (and a little bit frightening).


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

k0xxx said:


> A few days ago I noticed a payphone outside of a local store the we visit very infrequently. I was shocked.


Funny you should say that - because I do still look for them. Every HEB grocery store that's at least 10 years old still has one out front. A few local gas stations have them as well. No "phone booths" anywhere anymore, though.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

Our larger mall now has touch screen media stations where you can check your email, Skype, Facetime, etc. There is one pay phone in the mix of screens as well but no coin slots, only cash or card swipers. We (my department) still have one roadside telephone we keep for nostalgia. I remember getting radio calls to phone in to the station and having to find one. Seems crazy now.


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## jebrown (Nov 7, 2008)

I use cash only.
I do not have a credit card.
I do not believe in paying a company to allow me to spend my money 
I am 63 years old and never had a credit card


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## Mase92 (Feb 4, 2013)

Tirediron that is a fantastic story! Loved the shock in their eyes. lol

The info era we are in is going to collapse one day. Far too many rely on it (I do myself much more than I want) and don't know any different. 

One of my goals for the rest of this year after my oldest grad party is to go cash only....we'll see. 

Pretty insightful article too.


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## helicopter5472 (Feb 25, 2013)

Tirediron, I work in a college store, I have some of the kids work with me at night on the cash machine. If the wrong button is pushed it won't give the cash back amount which flusters them to no end, they have to use a calculator to figure it out. They are always amazed when I can tell them the amount before they finish calculating it. But to their defense, when it comes to computers, teckie phones, and texting well they have me beat hands down....


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

mosquitomountainman said:


> This is a serious issue. We have a few stories from our own travels. We finally opened another account to have access to multiple accounts when on the road. There's a story behind that too.
> 
> I remember an article in TMEN years ago praising how much more financial security we'd have with electronic money instead of cash. I laughed at their optimistic outlook even back then (in the 80's) and cancelled my subscription about that time as well. By then they'd become pretty much useless for homesteading.


That's about the time we quit getting subscriptions on TMEN, all I was seeing at the time was a bunch of adds for gasoline and diesel powered tractors and other non real homesteading stuff. They seemed to have sold out to a system that we were trying to get away from. I've been in situations where the power went down while we were shopping and most places are not even set up to take cash. We are certainly getting further away from a common sense era. We've had our card rejected once and a while, seems like it's when we've used it a few times in one day that the bank thinks there is suspicious activity or something. Strange thing about that is the one time they let an on line order through Sears for a $600 dollar camera at a camera shop in NY get trough that we didn't order, the thing about that was we haven't bought anything from Sears by credit on line ever. Anyway we got that straightened out but ended up having to get a new card #. That's not putting our bank down because it's one that is the most trustworthy we've dealt with over the years. Yep, things are getting serious.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Yes, it inevitable that sooner or later Datapocalypse will happen, if only to a small number of people. Heck, who is to say it hasn't happened already and you just have not found out that someone took our several credit cards, or bought a home using your info? If you are like me, I have not checked my 'credit score' since I bought a home in 2005. No reason to. Even then it was crap because I have no 'revolving credit' to report. I only had my rent and utilities to go by and the bank NEEDS more than that to give you a high rating. No I need to correct that... I bought a vehicle in 2008 and they told me the number, it was just as low. Same reason though, they needed more than mortgage and utilities to establish a 'good credit rating'. I was told I needed to get a few credit cards and use them to buy everyday items. Then pay them off each month and my credit score would be great! I have yet to do so.

But, back to the OP. What was it again?... Ah yes, (had to go back and re-read, sorry) electronic cash down. I have taken out my weekly "allowance" in cash for many, many years. If I want that new fishing pole I have to cut back for a while until I have saved enough for it. Major things like a home or vehicle, I have to go to the bank though.

I keep $60 in the vehicle - 2 - $20, 1 - $10, 1 - $5, 5 - $1 and a small bag of change. That is my backup in case I leave home without the wallet (never happens to anyone, right?) and need to purchase gas or something small. But, times have changed. Usually when you checkout the question is 'credit or debit?' I ask if they still take cash and most times get a puzzled look but they all say yes. I used to be an Assho.. well.. not nice and ask them if they took privately printed fiat monetary units or would they need government issued U. S. dollars? I do not remember one person asking for the fiat monetary units.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

I was buying machinery parts from a wholesaler that will sell to walk in public, I have a "cash account with them, but they won't take cash anymore, you have to either pay by some electronic form or use your approved account. some guys wanted to buy stuff for cash and they turned them away. Funny thing is 25 years ago they wouldn't take a credit card, approved account, company cheque, or Cash. A lot of wholesalers will only sell you stuff if you phone the order in now too, kind of a pain if you forget to order something and want to add it. 

I like to have 4 or $500 cash with just in case, but there are places that just don't take cash any more. it seems weird, but at one time most places could scale gold for purchases too


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## GrinnanBarrett (Aug 31, 2012)

As a precaution to buying things on the net we went to Chase Bank and got a no fee credit card that you load cash into when you want to use it. If it is compromised you lose what is loaded in the card ONLY. It is not connected to any other account. We do the same thing for bank accounts we connect to PayPal etc. We use an account that has NO direct connection to any other accounts we have. We keep it to a minimum balance so we are not exposed beyond the what is in the account at that time. 

This is something my friends in banking told me to do. you can tell they are nervous about the prospects of system failure. GB


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

Isn't a pre-paid credit card the same as a cash card? No fee credit cards? 
I bank with a credit union and have had issues with my card number, they were resolved and funds recovered. 

Cash is best, if one can find any.


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## Foreverautumn (Oct 25, 2010)

Tirediron said:


> OK take the purchase price, $14.56 then count pennies up to $14.60, add a dime to $14.70, add a nickel to $14.75, add a quarter to $15.00, add a five dollar bill to make the twenty we gave you.
> Big shocked eyes, you learned that in grade one?
> yes.
> Can you shoe that to the rest of the staff?
> ...


I have to admit, I wouldn't have been able to do that myself; I would have had to do the calculations in my head. But I can at least do it, just not quickly.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Foreverautumn said:


> I have to admit, I wouldn't have been able to do that myself; I would have had to do the calculations in my head. But I can at least do it, just not quickly.


I have learned by rounding to the nearest 100, 10, .1, .01...etc.

I can do 89 + 54 instantly because 89 rnds up to 100 (minus 11) and 54 rounds down to 50 (plus 4) which gives me 150 in an instant, and another half second to subtract 11 (139) and add 4 = 143

I can do this up to about 5 numbers with three places, or larger numbers if there are fewer of them.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

LincTex said:


> I have learned by rounding to the nearest 100, 10, .1, .01...etc.
> 
> I can do 89 + 54 instantly because 89 rnds up to 100 (minus 11) and 54 rounds down to 50 (plus 4) which gives me 150 in an instant, and another half second to subtract 11 (139) and add 4 = 143
> 
> I can do this up to about 5 numbers with three places, or larger numbers if there are fewer of them.


Or.

89 +1 = 90. 9(0) + 5(4) =14. include the (5)4 and you now have 144. Subtract the 1 you added to 89 and the answer is 143.

Unfortunately (IMHO) most children are not raised to think.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Do you remember the young man who (I think) was on Johnny Carson years ago who used his fingers for complicated adding and subtracting? I never figured out how he did it.

Young Country was a math major in college. The summer before graduation she was at a store, same situation as listed earlier, and the clerk had no idea how to count back change. Now, as a high school math teacher, she has a session on how to count back money. Sometimes you just have to get down to the basics.

Speaking of basics, how many of you remember sitting in 2nd grade and for 30 minutes each day reciting addition tables (e.g. 3+1=4, 3+2=5)? At the time it was sooooo boring; now I am so glad we it. Rote memorization is not a bad thing.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

TheLazyL said:


> Or.
> 
> 89 +1 = 90. 9(0) + 5(4) =14. include the (5)4 and you now have 144. Subtract the 1 you added to 89 and the answer is 143.
> 
> Unfortunately (IMHO) most children are not raised to think.


Hey, hey,hey!!! Are you talking about me? :dunno: Well maybe you are but just didn't know it. I grew up with foster parents, who though well meaning, did not teach me a whole lot of common sense. Much of what I've learned I cannot give credit to teachers, parents or anyone other than myself, that's not bragging, that's just a sad fact of my so called educational background. Most of my learning has been through trial and error, which I can vouch for, is not the best way to do things. It wasn't until I did a lot of figuring for building our home that doing the math like is being mentioned here came around for me, especially figuring how much concrete I would need. Those things sort of unlocked my mind. Sad thing is it took over 30 years, but if I'm with my wife getting groceries I can figure what the cost of what she gets pretty close to what the total cost will be. Not too shabby for an old fart.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

Viking said:


> Hey, hey,hey!!! Are you talking about me? ...Most of my learning has been through trial and error, which I can vouch for, is not the best way to do things. ....


I've got in-laws that sit there and say, _"I can't". _

My reply is, "Did you try?"
_
"No"_

"Then how do you know you can't, if you haven't tried?"

Then I get a dirty look.

You tried, learned, took that experience and built upon it. Nothing wrong with trial and error. Dad always said, "When you get done then you'll know how to do it."


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

Tirediron said:


> OK take the purchase price, $14.56 then count pennies up to $14.60, add a dime to $14.70, add a nickel to $14.75, add a quarter to $15.00, add a five dollar bill to make the twenty we gave you.


That is how I leaned to make change and hand it back to the customer. Repeat the amount of their purchase then, hand them pennies while counting to make the $14.60, dime makes $14.70...

"Your purchase was $14.56, 4 makes $14.60, $14.70, $14.75, $15.00 and 5 makes $20. Thank you and please come again."

When I went back to skool in the 1990's I took retail jobs to support myself. I was told that is not how to do it. The register calculates the change due, no one has time for me to count it out to them. "Your change is $5.44, thank you and come again."


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## VoorTrekker (Oct 7, 2012)

Too many people fail to understand that technology is a tool to add efficiency, not think for us. Too many people give up thought and thinking skills because a computer/electronic device will think for them. 

It is still useless, in my opinion, until people have the basic skills of manual calculations.


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## Woody (Nov 11, 2008)

You are exactly correct! But, the more technology advances the less people actually have to think. Catch 22 kind of thing? Oh, and remember, there is an app for that somewhere!!!


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