Target Black Friday 2013 Fraud Update: Target Breach Lasted Longer Than First Reported; Obama Wants New Protections; Shoppers Need to Change Behavior

Target Black Friday 2013 Fraud Update: The Target security breach lasted longer than previously thought. More than 110 million Target customers had their personal information exposed during the data breach. There was a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to take on the issue. Obama's administration said there should be a national standard. Retailers Target and Neiman Marcus explained and apologized to the committee.


Target Executive Vice President John Mulligan apologized to a Senate Judiciary Committee saying "We know this breach has shaken their confidence in Target, and we are determined to work very hard to earn it back," Mulligan said, during the first part of the hearing.


Neiman Marcus Senior Vice President Michael Kingston said the company first learned of a possible problem Dec. 17 when Mastercard told them that 122 fraudulently used credit cards had been used at Neiman Marcus.
Target Chief Financial Officer John Mulligan told a Senate Judiciary Committee that software on another 25 checkout machines continued to steal payment card data three days after Dec. 15, the date by which the discounter had said the malware was removed from its system.


Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday that The Obama administration recommends a uniform federal standard requiring businesses to quickly report thefts of electronic personal information. 


Attorney General Mythili Raman said "Businesses should be required to provide prompt notice to consumers in the wake of a breach," Raman said. "American consumers should know when they are at risk of identify theft or other harms because of a data security breach."


Target customers have until April 23  to register for Target credit monitoring in the wake of the Black Friday data breach of 2013. The warning comes on the tail of a study finding that the Target Black Friday breaches did not  change shopper behavior.


Ever since the data breach, Target has been offering free credit monitoring. Target shoppers are worried about the breach, but are doing nothing to make sure their data is more secure.


Beau Biden, the Attorney General Beau Biden of Delaware, is urging people in his state who shopped at Target to register for free credit monitoring. Biden said "Target is doing the responsible thing by offering free credit monitoring to all of its customers and I encourage consumers to take advantage of this service immediately."


As many as 70 million Target shoppers who made credit or debit card purchases from Nov. 27, 2013 to Dec. 15, 2013 could have had their information compromised. Hackers could have taken their name, credit or debit card number, the card's expiration date, and the card's three-digit CVV security code. Target said it is helping an ongoing investigation.


An Associated Press--GfK Poll found that consumers are worried about the Black Friday Target hacking but haven't changed their behavior.


The survey found that almost half of Americans say they are extremely concerned about the breach. Sixty-one percent say they are deeply worried about pending online. 62 percent of people surveyed said they are very concerned when they make purchases through mobile devices. On 37 percent have tried to use cash for purchases instead of credit cards. 41 percent have checked their credit reports. Few have changed online passwords at retailers' websites or requested new credit or debit card numbers.


Target is offering free credit monitoring services for a year to all its customers. Customers must sign up to receive an activation code on creditmonitoring.target.com by April 23, and must redeem their code by April 30. 

Tags
world news
Target
target black friday 2013
Join the Discussion

Latest Photo Gallery

Real Time Analytics