Computers Suck

April 25 -- Today, Brian had an awful scare.  A little while after he got to work, one of the accounting guys stopped by his office and asked him what his work credit card number was.  As Brian read off the numbers, the guy nodded.  "yeah," he said ominously, "it's you."  Brian freaked out; he had no idea what was going on.  Turned out, there were several mysterious charges to the account.  All related to XBox.  Brian was horrified.  Connor plays with an xbox.

While he waited to hear what the bank said about tracing the charges, Brian got more and more pissed off.  How could he not?  One or more of his own children had broken a major trust zone and had used his credit card (a work one of all things!) to buy games for the xbox.  This was particularly disturbing since we did not allow Connor to go on Xbox live which is necessary to have in order to buy those games via the internet.  (We were furious -- how could he have gotten that live component behind our backs?!)

Parents are stupid.  Seriously.  We are.  There are so many things in technology that kids understand far more profoundly than we do.  They run circles around us.  Brian and I spoke about five times today, totally upset about this breach of trust.  I found myself praying, please let it be a security breach with the card;  please let this not be Connor or Luke or both of them.

We got our answer late in the day.  When the bank didn't call back, Brian finally contacted XBox directly.  Within 10 seconds of the customer rep searching his account, he had his answer.  His card had been breached.  Someone was using it illegally.  There was no name, no formal account.  Connor and Luke had been cleared.  (thank God.)   Apparently, the various (and relatively few) online purchase Brian had made with this company card had been hacked and the personal information was stolen.

Or at least that is the story we have right now.  I do believe (and I am so relieved!!) that the boys are somewhat innocent with this particular situation.  But we have miles to go...miles to go.  Non-stop vigilance of these kids is a must.  Whew.  I am soooo exhausted!!