In the world of electronic commerce, there are a lot of assumptions. There is the assumption that I have money in my account to cover my purchases. There is the assumption that the store or website where I am shopping is protecting my information.

We all know what happens when we assume right?

The website Mashable compiled a list of businesses that have been hacked over the past few years. I found that list to be very unsettling because I have shopped at a lot of these places.

Some of the big time hack jobs have been made very public. However, a lot of the other hacker intrusions weren't really covered by the mainstream media. When you read the list of affected businesses it's enough to make you want to put your credit card in the shredder and start taking your chances again with cash.

Businesses like Whole Foods, Sonic, Wendy's, eBay, and others are among the ranks of Target, Home Depot, and Equifax who have had their own more public problems with web-based intruders.

The bottom line is it doesn't matter where the breach occurred, it's the fact that your sensitive information could be floating around the web within reach of any number of bad guys. These bad people would be quite happy to drain your account, ruin your credit, and make your financial life a total nightmare.

Even the National Security Agency has been hacked. I guess if they can get burned you can at least understand how smaller corporations could have their customer databases breached as well.

The bottom line is this. It's up to you to actually monitor your finances. That means daily checks on your debit and credit card balances and as much as it pains me to say this, changing your passwords often.

Don't assume your financial information is safe because we all know what happens when we assume right?

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