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PIN numbers removed but data ‘safe and secure’ in security breach, Target says
FoxNews.com
Target said Friday that debit-card PIN numbers were among the financial information stolen from millions of customers who shopped at the retailer earlier this month.
The company said the stolen personal identification numbers, which customers type in to keypads to make secure transactions, were encrypted and that this strongly reduces risk to customers.
In addition to the encrypted PINs, customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip on back of the cards were stolen from about 40 million credit and debit cards used at Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.
"The PIN information was fully encrypted at the keypad, remained encrypted within our system, and remained encrypted when it was removed from our systems," Molly Snyder, a spokeswoman from the company, said in a statement.
The announcement comes as federal lawsuits are beginning to trickle in from customers around the U.S. The Department of Justice told FoxNews.com Friday that it is investigating the Target data breach. Target said that it's cooperating with the DOJ's probe.
However, Gartner security analyst Avivah Litan said Friday that the PINs for the affected cards are not safe and people "should change them at this point."
By Monday evening, more than a dozen Target customers had filed federal lawsuits, with some accusing Target of negligence in failing to protect customer data. The recent security breach involving about 40 million credit and debit card accounts.
Target has been trying to deal with fallout from the breach during what is typically the busiest shopping season of the year.
Target has said that it told authorities and financial institutions once it became aware of the breach on Dec. 15. The company issued an apology to customers and doubled the number of workers taking calls from customers around the clock. It also offered 10 percent off to customers who wanted to shop in its stores on Saturday and Sunday and free credit-monitoring services to those who are affected by the issue.
But there are early signs that some shoppers are scared off by the breach.
Before this incident, Target had a chance of at least a decent Christmas. Now, it will be mediocre at best," said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultancy.
Target explained in Friday’s statement that its systems do not store PIN information and these numbers can only be decrypted by an external payment processor.
"The most important thing for our guests to know is that their debit card accounts have not been compromised due to the encrypted PIN numbers being taken," the statement said.
Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this report
Fury and frustration over Target data breach
(AP)The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Email this StoryDec 20, 12:56 AM (ET)By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO AND BREE FOWLER
| |||
NEW YORK (AP) - Potential victims of credit card fraud tied to Target's
security breach said they had trouble contacting the discounter through
its website and call centers.
Angry Target customers expressed their displeasure in comments on the company's Facebook page. Some even threatened to stop shopping at the store. Target apologized on Facebook and said it's working hard to resolve the problem and is adding more workers to field calls and help solve website issues.
The fury and frustration come as the nation's second-largest discounter acknowledged Thursday that data connected to about 40 million credit and debit card accounts was stolen as part of a breach that began over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The theft is the second-largest credit card breach in U.S. history, exceeded only by a scam that began in 2005 involving retailer TJX Cos. That incident affected at least 45.7 million card users.
Target
disclosed the theft a day after reports that the company was
investigating a breach. The retailer's data-security troubles and its
ensuing public relations nightmare threaten to drive off holiday
shoppers during the company's busiest time of year.
Christopher Browning, of Chesterfield, Va., said he was the victim of
credit card fraud earlier this week and believes it was tied to a
purchase he made at Target with his Visa card on Black Friday. When he
called Visa on Thursday, the card issuer could not confirm his
suspicions. He said he hasn't been able to get through to Target's call
center.
On Monday, Browning received a call from his bank's anti-fraud unit saying there were two attempts to use his credit card in California - one at a casino in Tracey, Calif., for $8,000 and the other at a casino in Pacheco, for $3,000. Both occurred on Sunday and both were denied. He canceled his credit card and plans to use cash.
"I won't shop at Target again until the people behind this theft are caught or the reasons for the breach are identified and fixed," he said.
Customers who made purchases by swiping their cards at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 may have had their accounts exposed. The stolen data included customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip found on the backs of cards, Target said.
There was no indication the three- or four-digit security numbers visible on the back of the card were affected, Target said.
The data breach did not affect online purchases, the company said.
Target hasn't disclosed exactly how the breach occurred but said it has fixed the problem.
Given the millions of dollars that company's such as Target spend implementing credit-card security measures each year, Avivah Litan, a security analyst with Gartner Research said she believes the theft may have been an inside job.
"The fact this breach can happen with all of their security in place is really alarming," Litan said.
Other experts theorize that Target's network was hacked and infiltrated from the outside.
Whatever the case, Jason Oxman, CEO of the Electronics Transaction
Association, which represents the payments technology industry, said
data breaches like Target's are generally "heavily organized and
sophisticated."
Annual losses from global credit and debit card fraud are on the rise. Last year, it reached $11.27 billion, up 11.4 percent from the previous year, according to The Nilson Report, which tracks global payments. Even so, Nilson's publisher David Robertson pointed out that fraud still accounts for less than 6 cents of every $100 spent.
Target, which has almost 1,800 stores in the U.S. and 124 in Canada, said it immediately told authorities and financial institutions once it became aware of the breach on Dec. 15. The company is teaming with a third-party forensics firm to investigate and prevent future problems.
The credit card breach poses a serious problem and threatens to scare away shoppers who worry about the safety of their personal data.
Target's stock dropped more than 2 percent, or $1.40, to $62.15 on Thursday.
"This is close to the worst time to have it happen," said Jeremy
Robinson-Leon, a principal at Group Gordon, a corporate and crisis
public relations firm. "If I am a Target customer, I think I would be
much more likely to go to a competitor over the next few days, rather
than risk the potential to have my information be compromised."
Target advised customers Thursday to check their statements carefully. Those who see suspicious charges should report them to their credit card companies and call Target at 866-852-8680. Cases of identity theft can also be reported to law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission.
"Target's first priority is preserving the trust of our guests, and we have moved swiftly to address this issue, so guests can shop with confidence," Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said Thursday in a statement.
Brianna Byrnes of Kansas City, Mo., a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a call center worker, said she made a Target purchase during the affected period. The situation made her "a little bit" nervous, but she still plans to shop for toys at the store, she said.
"I've never had anyone steal my identity. I guess it's taking a risk."
The incident is particularly troublesome for Target because it has used its store-branded credit and debit cards as a marketing tool to attract shoppers with a 5 percent discount.
During an earnings call in November, the company said some 20 percent of store customers as of October have the Target-branded cards. In fact, households that activate a Target-branded card have increased their spending at the store by about 50 percent on average, the company said.
"This is how Target is getting more customers in the stores," said Brian Sozzi, CEO and Chief Equities Strategist. "It's telling people to use the card. It's been a big win. If they lose that trust, that person goes to Wal-Mart."
TJX Cos., which runs stores such as T.J. Maxx and Marshall's, had a breach that began in July 2005 and exposed at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards to possible fraud. The breach was not detected until December 2006.
Without anyone noticing, one or more intruders installed code on the discount retailer's systems to methodically collect and transmit account data from millions of cards.
In 2009, TJX agreed to pay $9.75 million in a settlement with multiple states.
Litan doubts the breach will have much effect on Target's sales, noting that TJX launched sales promotions immediately following the news of its breach. The effort increased sales.
"People care more about discounts than security," Litan said.
---
Associated Press writers Michelle Chapman in New York and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.
Angry Target customers expressed their displeasure in comments on the company's Facebook page. Some even threatened to stop shopping at the store. Target apologized on Facebook and said it's working hard to resolve the problem and is adding more workers to field calls and help solve website issues.
The fury and frustration come as the nation's second-largest discounter acknowledged Thursday that data connected to about 40 million credit and debit card accounts was stolen as part of a breach that began over the Thanksgiving weekend.
The theft is the second-largest credit card breach in U.S. history, exceeded only by a scam that began in 2005 involving retailer TJX Cos. That incident affected at least 45.7 million card users.
|
On Monday, Browning received a call from his bank's anti-fraud unit saying there were two attempts to use his credit card in California - one at a casino in Tracey, Calif., for $8,000 and the other at a casino in Pacheco, for $3,000. Both occurred on Sunday and both were denied. He canceled his credit card and plans to use cash.
"I won't shop at Target again until the people behind this theft are caught or the reasons for the breach are identified and fixed," he said.
Customers who made purchases by swiping their cards at its U.S. stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15 may have had their accounts exposed. The stolen data included customer names, credit and debit card numbers, card expiration dates and the embedded code on the magnetic strip found on the backs of cards, Target said.
|
Target hasn't disclosed exactly how the breach occurred but said it has fixed the problem.
Given the millions of dollars that company's such as Target spend implementing credit-card security measures each year, Avivah Litan, a security analyst with Gartner Research said she believes the theft may have been an inside job.
"The fact this breach can happen with all of their security in place is really alarming," Litan said.
|
Annual losses from global credit and debit card fraud are on the rise. Last year, it reached $11.27 billion, up 11.4 percent from the previous year, according to The Nilson Report, which tracks global payments. Even so, Nilson's publisher David Robertson pointed out that fraud still accounts for less than 6 cents of every $100 spent.
Target, which has almost 1,800 stores in the U.S. and 124 in Canada, said it immediately told authorities and financial institutions once it became aware of the breach on Dec. 15. The company is teaming with a third-party forensics firm to investigate and prevent future problems.
The credit card breach poses a serious problem and threatens to scare away shoppers who worry about the safety of their personal data.
|
Target advised customers Thursday to check their statements carefully. Those who see suspicious charges should report them to their credit card companies and call Target at 866-852-8680. Cases of identity theft can also be reported to law enforcement or the Federal Trade Commission.
"Target's first priority is preserving the trust of our guests, and we have moved swiftly to address this issue, so guests can shop with confidence," Chairman, President and CEO Gregg Steinhafel said Thursday in a statement.
Brianna Byrnes of Kansas City, Mo., a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a call center worker, said she made a Target purchase during the affected period. The situation made her "a little bit" nervous, but she still plans to shop for toys at the store, she said.
"I've never had anyone steal my identity. I guess it's taking a risk."
The incident is particularly troublesome for Target because it has used its store-branded credit and debit cards as a marketing tool to attract shoppers with a 5 percent discount.
During an earnings call in November, the company said some 20 percent of store customers as of October have the Target-branded cards. In fact, households that activate a Target-branded card have increased their spending at the store by about 50 percent on average, the company said.
"This is how Target is getting more customers in the stores," said Brian Sozzi, CEO and Chief Equities Strategist. "It's telling people to use the card. It's been a big win. If they lose that trust, that person goes to Wal-Mart."
TJX Cos., which runs stores such as T.J. Maxx and Marshall's, had a breach that began in July 2005 and exposed at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards to possible fraud. The breach was not detected until December 2006.
Without anyone noticing, one or more intruders installed code on the discount retailer's systems to methodically collect and transmit account data from millions of cards.
In 2009, TJX agreed to pay $9.75 million in a settlement with multiple states.
Litan doubts the breach will have much effect on Target's sales, noting that TJX launched sales promotions immediately following the news of its breach. The effort increased sales.
"People care more about discounts than security," Litan said.
---
Associated Press writers Michelle Chapman in New York and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.
Target may have been victim of security breach
NEW YORK (KABC) --
ABC News has confirmed the Secret Service is investigating what appears
to be a massive data breach or 'intrusion' involving credit- and
debit-card numbers at Target stores nationwide.
Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary confirms the agency is investigating, but declined to provide further details.According to The Wall Street Journal, the breach involves the theft of data stored on the magnetic stripe of cards used at store registers across the United States. Officials say the machines may have been tampered with.
The breach appears to have begun on or around Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
The Wall Street Journal reports customers who shopped online do not appear to be affected.
Professor Clifford Neuman, who runs USC's Center for Computer Systems Security, suggests Target shoppers should frequently check their credit card statements and consider changing their debit card pins.
"It is much easier to resolve an issue of a fraudulent credit card charge than it is with a debit card. If you have credit cards and debit cards, use the credit card for most of your purchases," said Neuman.
A spokeswoman for American Express says the company is "aware of the incident." Target Brands Inc. has yet to comment on the investigation.
The discount chain has 1,797 stores in the United States.
ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
One Reason for Slow Wage Growth? More Benefits
Image
WASHINGTON
— One of the most perplexing questions about the nation’s economic
recovery is why a tight labor market has not translated into faster wage
growth. Part of the answer appears to be that American workers are
receiving a growing share of compensation in the form of benefits rather
than wages.
The average worker
received 32 percent of total compensation in benefits including bonuses,
paid leave and company contributions to insurance and retirement plans
in the second quarter of 2018. That was up from 27 percent in 2000, federal data show.
The rising cost of health insurance accounts for only about one-third
of the trend. And the data do not include the increased prevalence of
non-monetary benefits like flexible hours or working from home, or perks
like gyms and “summer Fridays.”
Best
Buy, the electronics retailer, began in July to offer four weeks of paid
time off to its employees, including part-time workers, to take care of
family members. The company decided that paid leave was the best way to
show appreciation for its employees, said Jeff Shelman, a company
spokesman. “Our philosophy is that our employees are our most important
asset, and we want to take care of them and allow them to take care of
the people that matter most to them in their lives,” he said.
The
shift toward nonwage compensation has helped to persuade the Federal
Reserve to keep pushing up interest rates. The central bank is expected
to increase its benchmark interest rate on Wednesday for the fourth
consecutive quarter, to a range between 2 and 2.25 percent. Asset prices
already reflect the full increase, leaving only the formality of the
Fed’s announcement, scheduled for 2 p.m.
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For
many workers, the returns from one of the longest economic expansions
in American history have been paltry. Wages have grown more slowly than
the economy in the wake of the 2008 crisis, and faster growth in recent
months has been offset by rising inflation. Between August 2017 and
August 2018, the most recent available data, average hourly wages
increased by 2.9 percent, but after adjusting for inflation, the
increase was just 0.2 percent, according to the Labor Department’s flagship survey.
Even including nonwage benefits, the growth of compensation is very slow by historical standards.
Some
economists outside the Fed argue the weakness of wage growth is
evidence that employers are still tapping a plentiful supply of workers.
While the unemployment rate is just 3.9 percent, they note that an
unusually large proportion of American adults are neither working nor
looking for work.
Fed officials have
predicted faster wage growth is on the way. But in the September edition
of its “beige book” survey of economic conditions, the central bank
also noted the turn toward nonwage compensation.
The survey said that companies seeking workers, rather than baiting
their hooks with wage increases, “were increasingly using benefits —
such as vacation time, flexible schedules and bonuses — to attract and
retain workers, as well as putting more resources into training.”
The
Boyd Group, a Canadian auto repair company that operates in the United
States as Gerber Collision & Glass, said it was struggling to hire
enough technicians to meet the demand for repairs. So the company plans
to spend $4.5 million this year to sweeten benefits for its United
States workers, including additional paid vacation and larger
contributions to employees’ 401(k) retirement accounts.
“The
objective is to make ourselves a more attractive employer within the
context of the collision repair industry and, therefore, take advantage
of opportunities to attract people from our competitors,” Brock Bulbuck,
the company’s chief executive, said on a conference call with investors
in May.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers argued this month that
the economic performance, and the benefits for workers, should be
judged by the growth of total compensation rather than wages.
Even
using the White House measure, there is no sign of an acceleration in
compensation since President Trump took office, but Michelle Meyer, an
economist at Bank of America, said it made sense to use broader
measures. “I think it goes back to the idea of whether our old models
are as valuable as they once were,” she said. “The story changes over
time, and I do think the fact that there are other ways of being
compensated means that simply looking at average hourly earnings is not
going to be a comprehensive measure of how the economy is responding to
tightness in the labor market.”
Companies
have kept most of the benefits of economic growth in recent years in
the form of higher profits, so the shift toward benefits appears to be a
rare example of workers getting something they want, albeit a
consolation prize. There is longstanding evidence that workers would
prefer a larger share of compensation in the form of benefits. Unionized
workers, who have greater leverage to negotiate the mix of wages and
benefits, have long used that power to insist on better benefits. The
average unionized worker last year received 40 percent of their
compensation in the form of benefits, compared with just 29 percent for
the average non-unionized worker, the federal data shows.
“Employers
mostly care about the level of compensation, so the composition of it,
they’d generally be glad to do what their workers want them to do,” said
Josh Bivens, the director of research at the liberal Economic Policy
Institute. “When workers actually have an effective voice, the benefit
share tends to be a little higher.”
Employers,
too, may prefer to offer increased compensation in the form of
benefits, because they may find it easier to cut benefits during a
downturn.
“You can increase benefits,
bonus payments and other perks to keep your workers happy without
creating a permanent adjustment in how they’re compensated,” Ms. Meyer
said. “If they go away, it doesn’t give the same perception of a change
in their value to the company.”
The
rise in nonwage benefits is not spread evenly across the work force.
Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities, calculated that benefit compensation has increased
15 percent since 2009 for workers in the 90th percentile of the income
distribution, while workers in the 10th percentile are receiving less
such compensation than they did in 2009.
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For the median worker, benefit compensation has increased 5 percent.
“When
I talk with blue-collar or service workers, they’re generally pretty
unhappy about wage stagnation and about inadequate benefits,” Mr.
Bernstein said.
The benefit that appears to be in the highest demand is paid time off.
The Society for Human Resource Management, which conducts an annual survey of the benefits offered by more than 3,500 corporations,
reported that the share of participants offering paid maternity leave
increased to 35 percent in 2018 from 26 percent in 2016. It also
reported a significant increase in the share of companies offering paid
leave to fathers, adoptive parents and surrogate parents.
One
recent survey reported that the share of Fortune 1000 companies
offering “summer Fridays” — days on which employees were allowed to
leave early for a long summer weekend — doubled from 21 percent in 2015
to 42 percent in 2018.
The White House
Council of Economic Advisers calculates that increasingly generous paid
leave benefits mean that the average American worker is getting an
additional half-day of paid leave each year, compared with five years
ago.
Large companies are more likely to offer such benefits. In February, Lowe’s became the last company among the nation’s 20 largest employers
to offer paid parental leave to its salaried and full-time hourly
employees. The company now pays for mothers to take 10 weeks of leave,
and for fathers to take two weeks off.
In
surveys, younger workers often place a greater emphasis on benefits,
and some analysts expect the shift toward nonwage compensation to
continue as the millennial generation replaces the baby boomers in the
work force.
Ms. Meyer, the Bank of
America economist, pointed to the tech industry as a harbinger. The
median employer in the tech industry, she said, spends about 2.5 times
as much on paid leave benefits as the median employer across the economy
as a whole.
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