October 3, 2024

On the Road: Data Security Begins With the Traveler

“You’re going to Bogotá?” she asked.

“Not that I know of,” I replied.

“So I’m guessing you also didn’t buy a $10 cup of coffee yesterday in Antelope, California?” she asked.

No. The charge of $740.04, for a one-way ticket on Delta Air Lines to Bogotá, Colombia, and the charge for $10.20 at a coffee shop were fraudulent.

We are vigilant in our house about monitoring credit card activity, especially after traveling, and this was not the first time that unauthorized charges had appeared after recent trips. So I immediately got on the phone and reported the problem to the American Express Platinum Card office. The card was invalidated, a fraud investigation was begun, the charges were removed, and a few days later a new card arrived via FedEx.

Then I called my friend the security expert, Anthony C. Roman, and said, problem solved, right? Not exactly. “Red alert! Red alert! Red alert!” he responded.

What’s the big deal? Aside from the inconvenience of having to enter the new credit card information on recurring accounts, the cost to me was zero.

“Well, hopefully it was,” said Mr. Roman, president of Roman Associates, which specializes in investigations and risk management consulting. He explained, however, that isolated unauthorized charges on your credit card statement most likely indicate that sophisticated cybercriminals are waiting to see if you will notice.

“What credit card fraudsters do is test your vigilance, how carefully you’re watching your account, and how carefully the credit card providers are watching your account. They do this by making relatively small purchases first, to see if it sets off any bells and whistles,” he said. Many frequent travelers are lax about checking activity statements in a timely manner, which flashes a green light to criminal hackers. Then, he said, “Hell or high water, the big charges are coming.”

Worse, he said, a hacked card could indicate that more serious identity theft might have occurred.

In its 2013 Global Security Report, Trustwave, a data security management firm, says that the top three industries targeted for data breach attacks in 2012, measured by the number of its investigations, were retailing (45 percent), food and beverage (24 percent) and hotels (9 percent). Three years ago, the hotel industry was at the top, but hotels have since made “significant strides” in improving credit card security measures, the report says.

Still, criminal hackers gravitate to some hotels because, like retail stores and restaurants, hotels do many credit card transactions at a local level, where centralized and highly sophisticated data security safeguards may be lacking. Last year, for example, the Federal Trade Commission sued Wyndham Worldwide, the hotel chain, for what it said was inadequate safeguarding of credit card information that led to three data breaches at hotels in under two years, with “millions of dollars in fraud loss, and the export of hundreds of thousands of consumers’ payment card account information to an Internet domain address registered in Russia.”

Wyndham responded that it had done all it could to report the crimes and carry out “significant remedial measures.” The company also charged that the commission had overstepped both its authority and its expertise in hotel data security enforcement.

Most hotels are locally owned, though managed by big hotel chain companies. For hotel owners, it is expensive to come into full compliance with the tough global data security criteria set by the credit card companies. And, Trustwave says, “Cybersecurity threats are increasing as quickly as businesses can implement measures against them.”

The threat is constant, Mr. Roman said. “The best protection is vigilance, and that takes work,” he said. That includes using complex passwords, being wary of public Wi-Fi, updating antivirus software — and checking credit card statements carefully.

Speaking of work, I hate to memorize passwords and PINs, but that appears to lie ahead. In the United States, credit cards use magnetic strips that are more vulnerable to hacking than the electronic chips embedded in credit cards in Europe and elsewhere. Such cards also require entry of a PIN.

These so-called chip-and-PIN cards are headed our way, said Kathy Orner, vice president for information security at Carlson Rezidor, a worldwide hotel company that is among the industry leaders in data security.

All of the major credit card issuers plan to start introducing these cards in the United States within two or three years. Ms. Orner had some advice for when that happens. “Do not use the same PIN on your credit card that you use on your debit card” or anywhere else, she said.

Right: more numbers to remember, coming soon.

E-mail: jsharkey@nytimes.com

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/business/data-security-begins-with-the-traveler.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

US Airways Shareholders Approve Merger With American Airlines

The Justice Department and attorneys general from 18 states are still reviewing the deal, as are European Union officials, to see if it would create monopoly service on some routes.

The merger, an all-stock deal that has been valued at $11 billion, is the latest in an industry that has undergone substantial consolidation, leading to the mergers of United and Continental in 2010, Delta Air Lines and Northwest in 2008, and Southwest Airlines with AirTran in 2011.

US Airways said in a statement that more than 99 percent of the shares that were voted on Friday supported the merger. US Airways shareholders will have a 28 percent stake in the combined airline.

American has been in bankruptcy since November 2011, and final approval of the bankruptcy court is also required for the merger. The new airline would keep the American name and remain based in Fort Worth. American’s creditors would own 72 percent of the combined airline.

W. Douglas Parker, the chairman and chief executive of US Airways, said at the annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday that the combined airline would offer more than 6,700 daily flights to 336 destinations in 56 countries. He said it would offer customers more choices as well as provide cost savings for the airlines.

But the Government Accountability Office, a research arm of Congress, said in June that the merger would reduce competition in a far larger number of airports than earlier airline mergers, including the one that created United Continental.

The report found that 1,665 routes between cities would lose one competitor as a result of the merger, affecting more than 53 million passengers. A new competitor would be created in 210 routes, affecting 17.5 million passengers. The report added, however, that the great majority of those markets still had “effective competitors.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/business/us-airways-shareholders-approve-merger-with-american-airlines.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Looking Ahead: Economic Reports for the Week of Jan. 23

CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies reporting results will include Halliburton and Texas Instruments (Monday); AK Steel, DuPont, Harley-Davidson, Johnson Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, McDonald’s, Verizon Communications, Advanced Micro Devices, Apple and Yahoo (Tuesday); Abbott Laboratories, Boeing, ConocoPhillips, Corning, Delta Air Lines, General Dynamics, United Technologies, US Airways, WellPoint, Xerox and Netflix (Wednesday); 3M, ATT, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Caterpillar, Colgate-Palmolive, JetBlue Airways, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, United Continental, Amgen, Eastman Chemical and Starbucks (Thursday); and Chevron, D.R. Horton, Ford Motor, Honeywell International, Newell Rubbermaid and Procter Gamble (Friday).

IN THE UNITED STATES A House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee will conduct a hearing about how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will function under its new director, Richard Cordray, and the Federal Open Market Committee will meet for a two-day discussion about the economy and interest rates (Tuesday). A House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee will conduct a hearing about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s investigation into the risk of fire in the battery of the Chevrolet Volt (Wednesday).

OVERSEAS European Union finance ministers will meet in Brussels (Monday). The Bank of Japan will issue a decision about interest rates, and the International Monetary Fund will release updated forecasts for the world economy and financial stability (Tuesday). The World Economic Forum will start in Davos, Switzerland (Wednesday).

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=eb4c690185fc2b3d6856c6f036d1a52a

Once the Leading Airline, American Is Now Third

Most airlines found a way back to profitability in the last few years by shedding costs through bankruptcy, reducing capacity and merging with one another. But American lost passengers to newly merged carriers like Delta Air Lines and United Airlines as well as low-cost competitors like Southwest Airlines. It retrenched around fewer hub airports. It struggled with older, jet fuel-guzzling planes and delayed renewing its fleet.

So American’s decision to file for bankruptcy this week highlighted both the industry’s remarkable transformation over the last decade and the distance now separating this airline from its peers. While other airlines have found ways to remain profitable even with elevated fuel prices and slowing passenger demand, American has been losing about $100 million each month. American was once the nation’s leading domestic and international carrier; now it is a distant third.

“American’s problems didn’t happen overnight but they have finally caught up with them,” said Robert Herbst, an independent analyst and retired airline pilot. “Their higher costs have forced them to cut unprofitable routes, which worsened their revenue problem. Bankruptcy was inevitable.”

The industry’s road to financial stability has been rocky and remains fragile. Employees, whose pensions and salaries were cut back, paid a heavy price. Dozens of airlines disappeared over the last decade, some through bankruptcies and others through mergers. The industry’s losses reached $60 billion in that period.

Thanks to reduced competition, the surviving airlines were able to raise ticket prices and increase revenue in all sorts of ways through a variety of fees for things like checked bags and booking an aisle seat.

American was the last of the so-called legacy carriers, created before the industry was deregulated in 1978, not to have filed for bankruptcy. If it manages to reduce its costs under court protection, analysts say it could become a candidate for a merger or a takeover. The most likely partner is US Airways, whose chief executive, Doug Parker, has long advocated the need for consolidation in the industry.

Ray Neidl, an analyst at the Maxim Group, said that US Airways would increase American’s network in the Southwest and in the Southeast, although it would not add much by way of international destinations. A merger with US Airways, Mr. Neidl said, “would also bring a very powerful and aggressive management team into play, which American would need to regain its proper place in the industry.”

But given American’s inability to reach a labor agreement with its pilots in the last three years, US Airways would pose another problem. It is still dealing with its own labor issues from its merger in 2005 with America West. Pilots from the two airlines have yet to agree to a common seniority list.

For now, American follows in the path set by Delta, United, and US Airways — which all went through bankruptcy court in recent years. Like these carriers, it hopes to be able to rewrite its labor contracts, shed obligations and debt and perhaps reduce the pension commitments it cannot afford. The details of American’s reorganization plan have not been made public yet.

US Airways filed for court protection twice before it was acquired by America West. Delta bought Northwest a year after both carriers emerged from bankruptcy. And United, which stayed under court protection the longest, from 2002 to 2006, bought Continental last year. Southwest, which never went through bankruptcy, completed its purchase of AirTran earlier this year.

“What probably saved the industry were the mergers,” Mr. Herbst said. “Most airlines would have gone bankrupt again without them.”

The airlines have also shown uncommon discipline in keeping their capacity in check since 2008. They have cut back on some flights and focused instead of filling as many seats as possible on their planes. Most are now flying packed planes most of the time.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4e859cbeafc8fb120871036371eb2512

Bucks: Delta Says It Will Refund Airfare Tax

Delta Air Lines offered a bit of good news on Monday for passengers who bought airline tickets before July 23 for travel taking place after that date. The carrier announced it would refund passengers directly. Just don’t hold your breath.

Because Congress could not agree on legislation to extend the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency lost the ability to levy taxes on airfares. Since then, there has been some wrangling over whether the airlines or the Internal Revenue Service would be responsible for providing refunds.

Last week, the I.R.S. said that customers should be able to get their refunds directly through the airlines and that it would develop a claims procedure for passengers who were unable to do so.

Now, Delta said, “The airline will process refunds directly for customers.” But the airline also said it was awaiting instructions from the I.R.S. on how to process those refunds.

If you paid taxes on such a flight and are pursuing a refund, let us know how it’s going in the comments.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=62665d174a48c297c4fbb14af6b318f8

Stocks and Bonds: Broad Rally Lifts Shares to a Nearly 3-Year High

Stock indexes have more than doubled since hitting a 12-year low in March 2009. The fastest bull market since the 1950s has now erased most of the losses stemming from the financial crisis.

The Standard Poor’s 500-stock index reached its highest level since June 2008. It gained 11.99 points, or 0.90 percent, to 1,347.24. It remains 16 percent below the record high of 1,565 it reached in October 2007.

The Dow Jones industrial average also reached a high for the year, rising 115.49 points, or 0.93 percent, to 12,595.37. The Nasdaq composite index rose 21.66 points, or 0.77 percent, to 2,847.54.

Better-than-expected earnings reports from a variety of companies, including airlines and office products manufacturers, helped drive a broad rally that included all 10 company groups that make up the S. P. index. Industrial companies gained nearly 2 percent, the most of any group.

Shares of Delta Air Lines rose 11 percent after it reported a loss that was smaller than investors had expected.

Cummins, the engine maker, gained 8 percent after raising its earnings forecast for the year because of strong demand. United Parcel Service rose 1 percent after raising its own earnings estimate for the year.

“What we’re seeing now is a positive reinforcement of the fact that demand is rising around the world,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. That is occurring although some companies say rising costs are hurting their profits, Mr. Krosby said.

Ford shares rose 0.7 percent after the automaker reported its best first-quarter earnings since 1998. Ford beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates with stronger sales of new vehicles.

3M, which makes Post-it notes and Scotch tape, rose 1.9 percent after it raised its full-year earnings expectations. The company said quarterly profit rose 16 percent compared with a year ago, beating analysts’ estimates.

Interest rates were lower. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note rose 16/32, to 102 21/32, and the yield fell to 3.31 percent from 3.36 percent late Monday.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=086fdeadd4d5d1df2bdf8b464b2eebb1