A few days back we reported that Target had been the victim of a massive security breach, one that lead to personal information of more than 40 million users being compromised. The retailer confirmed recently that the initial number doesn’t even come close to the actual number, which is now believed to be north of 70 million. That’s a lot of people who now have to be concerned about any unauthorized activity on their cards. One might wonder exactly how something of this magnitude happened? Target has revealed that the malware that caused this breach was actually installed on its point-of-sale registers.
Target does not know who is behind this, but is currently working with law enforcement agencies to find out. The retailer’s chairman and CEO Gregg Steinhafel has finally spoken out, and he says that its clear that Target is accountable and acknowledges that “we are responsible.” He promises that they’re going to make significant changes and come out of this debacle as a “better company.” Just yesterday a new report claimed that as many as three other major U.S. retailers were also hacked in a similar fashion during the holiday season, those retailers have yet to be named. Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus confirmed earlier this week that it too had been hacked, and that payment card information of its customers was most likely out in the wild now.