There’s a reason that people prefer using Google Maps over other mapping applications: It’s just a flat-out terrific service. That said, there is one downside to having Google Maps serve as the de facto online mapping service: It’s a major target for hackers who can use it to effectively ruin small businesses. Wired brings us the sad tale of a once-popular restaurant in Northern Virginia whose business mysteriously dried up for no apparent reason in early 2012. Although the restaurant couldn’t figure out why its sales were tanking in time to prevent itself from going under, its owner eventually discovered that a rival restaurant had apparently changed the business’s hours on Google Places to make it look as though the restaurant
