We all think about electronic security. How couldn’t we? Turn on the TV, and you get barraged with commercials about safer credit cards and news reports about fraud. How do you keep up with the pace of technology, getting an electronic identification card for practically everything, and still feel secure? New forms of electronic identification keep cropping up. Did you know Mobil teamed with Timex to make Speedpass-enabled watches? (Apparently, taking the keys out of the ignition to swipe the original pass was too much for some people.) Identity theft and Internet fraud combined cost victims more than $400 million last year alone, according to a recent report on CNN.

When I got my first credit card as a teenager, my mother explained the dos and don’ts of credit. Never buy something you wouldn’t buy with cash (e.g., $300 shoes), never carry a balance you can’t pay off immediately, and never give out your credit card number. Don’t read it over the phone. Don’t leave a restaurant receipt on the table with your number on it. Don’t read it aloud at a store when the numbers are faded from use or the strip doesn’t work. Equally important, don’t give out your Social Security number unless absolutely necessary. There were lots of don’ts. Following the rules became increasingly difficult in college when I wanted more junk at the co-op, and later when I needed a computer I didn’t have the cash for. Although I’ve broken all of my mother’s rules along the way, they’re good rules to live by. My mother is terrified of identity theft and ruined credit. She knows the value of building credit, but as a former auditor, she certainly understands the risk.

It wasn’t that I didn’t believe my mother, but I guess the seriousness of the risk didn’t dawn on me until I started using a card for everything. My debit card has replaced cash. I use it to buy gas, groceries, movie tickets, clothes, and dinner at restaurants. Yesterday, I swiped my debit card at the bank window so the teller didn’t have to ask for my driver’s license. I still hear my mother’s voice in my head though, and I never leave my receipt on the table or a shop counter if it states my full number.

Although I haven’t dealt with identity theft, I have had problems with credit cards. A couple years ago, I found a charge on my statement for a few hundred dollars from a company I had never heard of. When I called my credit card company, I was told that I had to find out where the charge came from. (Why the credit card company didn’t help me is another issue altogether.) Someone whose card number was off from mine by a couple numbers ordered collectables from a coin company over the phone. Never read your credit card number over the phone, my mother said. And never buy things you wouldn’t buy with cash (no offense to coin collectors). It took weeks and many irritating conversations with ambivalent customer service reps who couldn’t care less about solving my problem to get it straightened out. As you might have guessed, there were no apologies. I don’t know what the tally is for mistaken charges, but I’m sure many people pay quietly just to avoid the hassle or because they don’t notice the charge on the bill.

As we become more and more reliant on electronic identification, the demand for better security increases. In a two-part series that begins this month, Brian Millier will examine smartcard technology, formerly from the world of high-security electronics apps. He’ll pull back the curtain to show us how smartcards work and how to program them. How do you feel more secure? One way is to figure out how the current technology works and make it better.