Why the USPS Data Breach was Significantly Different [e120]
The guys discuss the recent data breach at the US Postal Service that led to confidential employee information being compromised. They also answer the question, "What do I need to do to my guest room to make it a writeoff for my business?" Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: All right, welcome to our podcast where we cover business in the news and also answer some of your business legal questions that you, the listener, can send in via email to ask@legallysoundsmartbusiness.com. You can also mail us your questions, but we’re not going to read that so don’t do that. And my name is Nasir Pasha. MATT: And I’m Matt Staub. NASIR: And so, we are on our mid-week episode here covering, once again, a data breach except a little bit different though, I think. It’s important, right? MATT: Yeah, and a little backstory to this one. Did we talk about the Home Depot data breach? NASIR: Yeah. MATT: I think we might have offhanded mentioned it. We talked about Target; I’d know for sure. NASIR: Yeah, I don’t know if we featured it, but we definitely mentioned it, for sure. MATT: So, the Home Depot data breach was pretty big and I’ve probably gone to Home Depot, like, thirty times in the last however many months just to buy all this stuff so I’ve been going to Home Depot. Basically, I’ve used my credit card at Home Depot a significant amount over this period where there was potential breach. NASIR: Where do you go? The one on Mission Gorge or Sunrise? MATT: Well, I’ve gone to a couple, yeah. NASIR: Oh, multiple ones, wow. MATT: Mission Valley area? I don’t know if that’s the right way to classify it. I think that’s what you’re talking about. NASIR: Yeah, on Mission Gorge. MATT: Fairmont and then I go to the Point Loma one sometimes. NASIR: Yeah, Fairmont – Mission Gorge, Fairmont. Anyway, sorry; sorry to distract all the non San Diegans are very confused right now. MATT: So, you know, I got a notification from the credit card I use saying, “Hey, we don’t know if there’s a breach…” NASIR: I just liked how you said “Hey.” Sorry, I got distracted. MATT: We can cut that out. My throat got a little bit stuck. So, they said, “Hey, we don’t know if there was a breach but, just in case, we’re going to send you a new credit card.” I was like, “All right. Well, that’s fine.” And then, a couple of weeks went by like nothing. I just kind of forgot about it and they sent me an email saying, “If you don’t activate your card in the next however many days, it’s going to be invalid.” I was like, “Well, that’s a problem because I never got a card.” So, I called in. This was on a Monday I think I called in – for the listeners, a week and a half ago. I explained the situation. She’s like, “Well, you would have received it.” I was like, “I didn’t receive it.” Blah blah blah. She’s like, “We’ll send you a new one.” I was like, “Okay. When I get the new one, when I activate it, will it invalidate my current one?” She’s like, “Oh, no, we already cancelled that.” So, they cancelled the one that was apparently mailed and the one I currently had. She’s like, “You’ll need to re-setup all your automatic payments.” I’m like, “Well, I don’t even have a card to set it up because you just cancelled both of them so that’s a problem, right?” Anyways, that day, I had to go to the post office. This is a long story to get to my point but I had to go to the post office and I took my old credit card out and I swiped it and I was like, “Oh, yeah, I forgot it doesn’t work,” and she kind of look confused and I was like, “Does it not work?” She’s like, “Yeah.” I explained the situation of what happened. This story again. She’s like, “Oh, actually, we just had a data breach.” I was like, “Oh, when?” She’s like, “Just now.” I was like, “What? That’s not good.” NASIR: “Is it because I swiped my credit card? Did I do that?” MATT: Yeah, I was like, “Well, that’s concerning, right? I don’t have any cash so I can’t pay with cash and I have to mail this out so I’ve just got to ...