Wireless routers are great aren't they? With them, you can connect desktop computers without running wires all over the house and your laptops will work upstairs, downstairs, outside or whereever you are.

But maybe you've noticed when you try to connect that there's lots of other wireless networks around. Have you ever tried to connect to one? If your neighbor has left their wireless open and unlocked, you can get on their home network and maybe browse their files. Well that also works in reverse; if you haven't set your network up right, your neighbors might be browsing through your computers.

(Image used under: Creative Commons 2.0 [SRC][Mod])

If you've been following this breach, the key problem here is two part:

1) TJX is the parent company of several other companies including TJ Maxx. Each of those companies shared data with TJX creating a massive database (and a single target for the hackers).

2) TJX (and others) shouldn't have stored the credit card data in the first place and when they did, they should have used better security.

Though they'll blame "clever hackers" for the breach, the fault instead lies squarely with TJX who's business practice of storing credit cards against people's will along with negligent use of outdated wireless encryption (WEP) first created a giant target and then then left a gaping hole for the bad guys to be able to go and get it.