standard, and use triple des, which allows it to be protected. the problem with p.i.n. numbers is they are only four characters, so there are only 10,000 combinations. it won t hold up, because hacker disbrute for hackers can brute force it. the advice for all of the people right now is to replace their bank cards and credit cards and to get some new p.i.n. numbers. also, security experts are telling people they need to be looking at their banking and credit card statements carefully, watching for small charges, it could indicate if fraudsters are checking to see if the accounts are active, and sometimes you miss the smaller charges, before you get hit for a bigger charge. great point. alexandra field, thank you. still to come, the new year is almost here, but you still have time to make sure you don t have to pay the taxman too much.