Target Hacked, Credit Cards and Private Data for 40 Million Stolen

[debarshi]

Today retailer Target announced that between November 27 and December 15 its point-of-sale systems – the cash registers mounted at the check-out areas of its stores – suffered an attack that exposed an estimated 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The company announced that it has “alerted authorities and financial institutions immediately after it was made aware of the unauthorized access, and is putting all appropriate resources behind these efforts.” It said it has hired outside support to investigate the source and method of the breach.

Thieves made off with customer names, card numbers, as well as expiration dates and the three-digit CVV security code. Ironically, only customers who visited Target stores were compromised.

And this, below, is what Target has to say

You should remain vigilant for incidents of fraud and identity theft by regularly reviewing your account statements and monitoring free credit reports. If you discover any suspicious or unusual activity on your accounts or suspect fraud, be sure to report it immediately to your financial institutions. In addition, you may contact the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") or law enforcement to report incidents of identity theft or to learn about steps you can take to protect yourself from identity theft.

Source:

Techcrunch

Lifehacker

This is real bad news, folks. With Flipkart launching Payzippy, another service storing cards and banking data, this does not look good at all.