Pierluigi Paganini January 11, 2014

The giant US retailer Target announces that the extent of the credit-card leak was even bigger, further 70 million customers are victims of the data breach.

We all remember the holiday attack against the US giant retail Target, a data breach that exposed millions of customers’ data. The attackers accessed to names, mailing addresses, phone number and email addresses for up to 70 million customers.

While Target Chairman Gregg Steinhafel apologized for the inconvenience that the data breach may have caused customers, the company still not provided any further information on the schema of attack implemented by hackers.

“I know that it is frustrating for our guests to learn that this information was taken and we are truly sorry they are having to endure this,” said Steinhafel.

The disclosure was made a few weeks after the Target retailer has confirmed a cyber attacks and the theft of approximately 40 million customer debit and credit card records.

The company highlighted in its statement that customers would have “zero liability” for charges to their cards.

“As part of Target’s ongoing forensic investigation, it has been determined that certain guest information — separate from the payment card data previously disclosed — was taken during the data breach,” ”This theft is not a new breach, but was uncovered as part of the ongoing investigation. At this time, the investigation has determined that the stolen information includes names, mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses for up to 70 million individuals.” reported the company in an official statement.

Target company has started the necessary actions to secure its customers, publishing updates on the investigation and sending an email address to its clients to alert on the attack providing suggestions on best practices to follow. According to ABC News, also the US Secret Service is currently investigating, but declined to provide further details.

“Target alerted authorities and financial institutions immediately after it was made aware of the unauthorized access, and is putting all appropriate resources behind these efforts.  Among other actions, Target is partnering with a leading third-party forensics firm to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident.”

The emails sent by Target invite customers to be wary of any mail that requires them any sorts of information, cyber criminals may already be at work.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs –  cybercrime, Target)