So just got off the phone with the vendor. She said the owner had their IT guy look into it over the weekend, and they also spoke with their card processor. They were not able to find any security breach. They said they use a 256bit encryption on the card information. When a purchase is made all the card info but the last 4 numbers on the card are dumped and not stored in their servers. They said they have seen 3 examples of this same type of fraudulent charges, but the charges never originated from the same place. One example was a charge that originated in Florida and not in the state that the vendor operates from.
That information along with what I was able to collect points to this not being a single breach with a couple vendors. It is most likely something bigger like a mass card information breach. Think of the big Target data breach. Some of these charges could be from card info that was taken in something like that hack. Also when you use WIFI, all the bits of web traffic are sent to and from your computer. It is possible for someone to hack your WIFI network and sit outside in a black van and use a packet sniffer type software and capture those bits of data. If they do this long enough and you happen to use an unsecured webpage to enter card information on, they can get your card information this way.
There are hundreds upon hundreds of ways that card information can be stolen these days. We'll probably never know how these recent hacks were conducted, but the only thing you can do is use secure networks, and always use sites that are Https to enter card information on. Also like I mentioned before ALWAYS check your bank pages often and make sure nothing fraudulent is going through. Even using the best security measures, if someone is determined enough they can hack the most secure networks so prevention is harder. This is why it is important to routinely check your bank statements.
