Ho,Ho, Ho, data theft we go. It wasn't just gullible shoppers were in a frenzy on Black Friday. Seems hackers love the marketing hyped retail bonanza as well. Target was hacked and a whopping 40 million credit and debit cards were ripped off from November 27th to December 19th. The speed of the massive theft is unprecedented in cyber-crime history. Target is the second largest generalized merchandise retailer in America. This is huge.
The irony is extreme. Target just became a target for data theft. The data stolen is track data and this is the information on the magnetic strip of the card. Swipe your card in a Target magnetic card reader to make your purchase, it is 100% probable your information was stolen. This is pretty bad. Thieves got the customer name, card number, expiration date and even that three digit number on the back, often used for security.
It is not clear if the hackers obtained the 4 digit pin used with debit cards and are doing a run on bank accounts. There are many ways hackers can access corporate servers to capture data. Something this large implies Target had a big wide gaping security hole somewhere. Yet initial reports are saying this attack was unique. It was distributed, coordinated theft. Instead of attacking a centralized server, the thieves hacked into each individual Target store. Although the cyber-crime technique is not confirmed, it is believes the actual credit and debt card readers had malicious software programmed right into them. Target has 1,797 stores in the United States, each one having at least 20 card readers. If the software was on the card readers, this might imply not just Target is vulnerable to such an attack.
Target did not even find the breach. Visa and Mastercard did when massive fraudulent purchases started piling up, all traced back to accounts who made a physical purchase at a Target store. Kind of amazing considering Target has spent millions to track your data and can even tell if you are pregnant before you do. Something this systemic is possibly in every Target store in America making it much more difficult to remove and now 40 million Target customers are scrambling to kill accounts, obtain credits and new cards with only days until Christmas. What a gift, to other retailers that is.
Update: It seems hackers did indeed obtained the 4 digit PINs to accessible people's bank accounts. It is unclear if the encryption has be cracked and if so this would mean thieves would have access to people's bank accounts.
Comments
Why hack? "US" companies give SSNs free to other countries
Seriously, why bother hacking? Credit agencies, banks, "US" government contractors give our information free overseas to save a dime and build up boardroom bonuses when they send everything beyond our border (e.g., credit checks, medical records, etc. to foreign workers overseas). Why hack at all? Everyone overseas has our SSNs, credit histories, and on, and on with the seal of approval from our sell-out government officials and bureaucrats. Why hack security systems? Our sell-out government and corporate pawns invite foreign entities to basically install their spyware into our defense and intelligence plans. I mean before Qaddafi's fall, "our" State Dept. invited his son on a special visa to tour the US and special installations - something US citizens can't even do! Why enforce border control at all? Our corporate govt. will just invite anyone and everyone to run HR departments and every other department in business, education, and govt. through visa abuses. Why protest anymore? Why, why, why? Please, Target? Come on, like our govt. hasn't known about the dangers of outsourcing and allowing banks and other corporations to know/sell our personal info. for decades. Let's just assume everything the NSA gathers on law-abiding citizens is hacked by millions of people overseas daily - thanks NSA for making it that much easier to screw Americans over while invading privacy and violating the Constitution.
In other news, the sky is blue and the US and many Western countries resemble the Roman Empire circa 400 AD.
Target uses Bangalore for tech
Target offshore outsources their tech to Bangalore. The cause of the breach is still undetermined, but it seems to be software on POS terminals (POS are the devices where you swipe your card, the magnetic readers).
Security experts are implying this is an inside job, in other words, it is possible Target's labor arbitrage and offshore outsourcing just came back to bite them.
Yawn, no changes in the future because traitors don't care
And what changes will occur? This has been going on for decades now and has to be story 10,000 globally about this crap. No changes, none, because the traitors in charge love that $ and admit they owe Americans jacksh*t. After all, they're multinationals unaccountable to anyone (except they deserve those massive salaries and bonuses because they are personally responsible for good stuff, not bad stuff), but hey, paradoxically, "corporations are people too"?! Huh?
But the boardrooms and their puppets sure do love our State Dept. and DOD protecting their asses when it hits the fan overseas. They sure do love our State Dept. and White House and Congress lobbying for them overseas and those private jet rides where they buy drinks for the media. They sure do love NAFTA and the WTO and CAFTA and the Corporate Trade Representative aka "US" Trade Rep. looking out for the boardrooms and top officers. Americans, you know, the 99.9% of us out here getting jacked and robbed and booted from jobs and having our SSNs stolen and abused and entire lives destroyed, well, we count for less than nothing.