back to article Goodwill's goodwill rocked as Feds probe bank card hacking scam

American charity Goodwill is being investigated by US federal authorities as the possible ground zero for a major debit and credit card security breach. But the company says it thinks it's in the clear. "Goodwill Industries International was contacted last Friday afternoon by a payment card industry fraud investigative unit …

  1. Mark 85

    First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

    You would have thought they would have learned a lesson from the Target breach. I'm curious if they even had logging turned on in the servers.

    1. Don Jefe

      Re: First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

      Crashing while driving drunk never happens to 'you'. Nor does getting caught understating income for tax purposes or getting lost in the woods because 'your' sense of direction sucked worse than you thought and you've got no map. The example is irrelevant.

      The fact is people rarely learn from the mistakes of others. The phenomenon known as 'special case syndrome' is universal. People, understandably, want to be somehow special or better, and they generally are, but rarely in the ways they think. That's just a fact of life on this planet.

      But, this is important, special case syndrome is the absolute worst with NPO's. Doubly so with the big ones. They spend so much time and resources establishing their identity they lose sight of the fact they are still just a company with a shitty incentive program.

      Don't get me wrong, I support the idea of NPO's (I'm on the Board of two) and many of them do great work, but Christ. They can get really insular, just look at the quote in the story 'even the best of us...'. Ignoring the ego polishing, that's exactly what you'd expect an NPO to say. 'Golly geewhiz, I can't believe people would target us'.

      *You and your used above are generic, not meant to be aimed at you. I'm too tired to rethink the wording of my sentences :)

      1. Ole Juul

        Re: First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

        Excellent comment Don Jefe.

      2. Mark 85

        Re: First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

        You're right Don. I didn't think of the "we're special" mindset even though I'm aware of it.

      3. keith_w

        Re: First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

        I would like to point out that the "Even the Best of us" comment was not made by Goodwill, or anyone linked to Goodwill. It was said by Dr Mike Lloyd, CTO at security biz RedSeal Networks.

        1. Don Jefe
          Thumb Up

          Re: First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

          Good catch! I'm fairly sensitive to misattribution. Someone once said something spectacularly stupid at a conference and a journalist attributed it to me instead of the person who said it, who happened to take the stage after me. It took years before that stopped following me around.

          Thank you for pointing out my error.

          1. keith_w

            Re: First we deny the breach... then we privately panic ... then minimize it in our PR.

            You are quite welcome. I hate to nitpick, but blaming someone who doesn't deserve it is something I really hate to see even more. Glad you got your erroneous attribution corrected.

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