[Infowarrior] - Home Depot Breach Bigger Than Target's

[Richard Forno]

Home Depot Breach Bigger Than Target's

Five-Month Attack on Terminals Put 56 Million Cards at Risk

By Robin Sidel

Sept. 18, 2014 4:52 p.m. ET

http://online.wsj.com/articles/home-depot-breach-bigger-than-targets-1411073571

Home Depot Inc. HD +0.95% said 56 million cards may have been compromised in a five-month attack on its payment terminals, making the breach much bigger than the holiday attack at Target Corp. TGT +1.69%

It was the first time the do-it-yourself retailer had defined the scale of a breach it said it was alerted to on Sept. 2. It also said for the first time that the malware has been eliminated from its systems.

The attack further highlighted the vulnerability of U.S. retailers to hackers that have been targeting their payment systems. Home Depot began a project to fully encrypt its payment terminal data this year, but was outpaced by the hackers, people familiar with the matter have said. The company said Thursday that the project is now complete in the U.S.

The breach at Target affected 40 million credit and debit cards.

Write to Robin Sidel at robin.sidel at wsj.com

---
Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.