theft

It seems PayPal makes it's own rules whether or not to accept that a customer has experienced unauthorized payments from his or her account. Not a good policy, IMO.

Take this story from Chris Pirillo.
A summary: someone was able to retrieve his iTunes password thanks to lax password retrieval security over at Apple. (Apple have now resolved the issue, according to the story). Using Chris' account, the fraudster was able to deduct US$450 from Chris' PayPal account - cash spent on iTunes Gift Cards.

With this background, and the backing by Apple, you would think Chris would get his funds back, right?

Wrong!

As it turns out, PayPal deems the deduction was


and decides that they will NOT return the funds stolen.

What should PayPal do? Should they turn around?
Perhaps it is time to use the Marketing Power, and stop using PayPal until they reach a better vetted stand?

And - is this the first time PayPal does this, or is Chris' case the last in a long row?

Can we trust a banking service that does not care for it's customers?

Do you think PayPal is taking the side of the fraudsters in this case?

Lots of cool gadgets over at Ubergizmo. Today it is a fingerprint door lock. 

After seeing this episode 59 of the Mythbusters, I am not very enthusiastic about fingerprint door locks. If you saw it yourself, you know why! The door lock they tested was beaten. When they figured out how to beat it, they did so time and time again, using different tactics. 

The TJX case still keeps me busy, and I just came about this Wall Street Journal reprint. It is well worth a reading, as it taps into the details.

An auditor pointed to the lousy security in september 2006:

"The auditor told the company last Sept. 29 that it wasn't complying with many of the requirements imposed by Visa and MasterCard, according to a person familiar with the report. The auditor's report cited the outmoded WEP encryption and missing software patches and firewalls. "