Home Depot Says Breach Affected 56 Million Cards

wiredmikey writes: Home Depot said on Thursday that a data breach affecting its stores across the United States and Canada is estimated to have exposed 56 million customer payment cards between April and September 2014. While previous reports speculated that Home Depot had been hit by a variant of the BlackPOS malware that was used against Target Corp., the malware used in the attack against Home Depot had not been seen previously in other attacks. "Criminals used unique, custom-built malware to evade detection," the company said in a statement. The home improvement retail giant also that it has completed a "major payment security project" that provides enhanced encryption of payment card data at point of sale in its U.S. stores. According to a recent report from Trend Micro (PDF), six new pieces of point-of-sale malware have been identified so far in 2014.

Comments

Re:Credit cards?

[smooth wombat]

We can't have nice things (chip & pin) because American industry is too cheap to upgrade infrastructure.

No. We can't have nice things because some people think it's acceptable to steal other people's information or works. If people wouldn't steal there would be no need for chip and pin, or even pin.

Further, since we coddle such people when we catch them, this will be an ongoing issue. If you get rid of them you send a clear message that even if it doesn't deter someone, this will be the penalty you will pay if you do the same thing.