Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

In an interesting small piece out of Washington, it was noted that U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had been hit by a credit card breach. It happens. What made this piece interesting is that the Chief Justice was apparently overheard telling his Starbucks barista and his local D.C. barber about the breach, by way of explaining why he wasn’t using his usual credit card.

Our initial reaction was, “How times have changed. It wasn’t that long ago that coffee and haircut payments were almost always done in cash. It’s certainly interesting that he felt the need to explain and justify his greenback move.” But it could have been for other reasons. By the way, clearly, the Chief Justice doesn’t use a Starbucks card or Starbuck’s mobile app. (Just saying.) Could the judge of judges have been trying to let people know that data breaches are widespread and that no one is safe, that if the Chief Justice can

get hit, anyone can? Or maybe these were simply longtime associates and he would have felt the need to explain any change in behavior? (Seems the Chief Justice still has a little pull, as he told those colleagues that the suspect apparently attacked from Kentucky, which is more than most breach victims are told.)