Home Depot security breach could be many times larger than Target hack

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,256   +192
Staff member

banks home depot experienced big credit card breach security breach credit cards hackers

Home improvement specialist Home Depot on Tuesday said they were working with authorities to investigate a possible security breach that may have resulted in the theft of customers’ credit or debit card data.

The Atlanta-based company said they are aggressively gathering facts and would immediately notify customers if they confirm a breach.

A Krebs on Security report claims multiple banks are seeing evidence that Home Depot stores may be the source of a massive batch of stole cards that went on sale on the black market Tuesday morning.

banks home depot experienced big credit card breach security breach credit cards hackers

Krebs further points out that there are signs that this attack was perpetrated by the same group of Russian and Ukrainian hackers responsible for recent breaches at Target, Sally Beauty and P.F. Chang’s, just to name a few.

As evident by the image above, the motive appears to be political retribution against recent US and European sanctions put in place against Russia due to its aggressive actions in the Ukraine. The batch of cards for sale is split into two groups: those issued by European banks and those issued by American banks.

The scope of the attack could be massive as preliminary analysis indicates the breach may have extended to all 2,200 Home Depot stores across the US. Several banks told Krebs that they believe the breach may date all the way back to late April or early May of this year.

If true, we could be looking at a breach that is several times larger than the Target Black Friday attack late last year.

Permalink to story.

 
Expect to see this type of story more frequently moving forward. With everything on computers and an entire generation of people who know how to use them, it won't be long before digital crime is as common as petty theft.
 
These banks haven't updated their credit card system in 20 years. Anyone knows the last thing you do with pos terminals is attach them to the internet.
 
Expect to see this type of story more frequently moving forward. With everything on computers and an entire generation of people who know how to use them, it won't be long before digital crime is as common as petty theft.

Actually, I wouldn't say a whole generation knows how to use them. Thanks to the ipad/other tablets, most kids/teens don't even know how to use a desktop. If anything, general computer knowledge has decreased since 2010. It would be fair to say this is a result of cheap companies refusing to upgrade their systems. Points of Sale are easy to crack when you have 20 years to hack one system.

It's time for american commerce to evolve.
 
Back