There are a variety of methods used to steal credit-card and debit-card numbers. In this case, malicious software, or malware, made its way onto Target's point-of-sale terminals—the red credit-card swiping machines in checkout aisles, according to people familiar with the breach investigation.
The affected data included customer names, credit- and debit-card numbers, expiration dates and three-digit security codes embedded in the magnetic stripe, according to a notice posted for customers on the Target website.
Target was thrust into crisis mode Thursday after a massive theft of customer credit-card data threatened to dent the discounter's reputation and hurt sales during the final days of holiday shopping.
News of the data breach broke on Wednesday. On Thursday, after Target disclosed that 40 million credit- and debit-card accounts had been compromised in the breach, which ran from Nov. 27 until Dec. 15, anxious customers clogged the chain store's phone lines, jammed its credit-card website, and left angry posts on the corporate Facebook page.
Target, which discovered the problem Sunday, brought in the Secret Service and alerted card companies. Target also hired a forensics unit at Verizon Communications Inc. VZ -0.08% to investigate the incident, according to people familiar with the matter.
If the USA wants to stick with third-world card technology like security codes stored in magnetic stripes, you get what you deserve.The affected data included customer names, credit- and debit-card numbers, expiration dates and three-digit security codes embedded in the magnetic stripe, according to a notice posted for customers on the Target website.
. . . U.S. credit and debit cards rely on an easy-to-copy magnetic strip on the back of the card, which stores account information using the same technology as cassette tapes.
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In most countries outside the U.S., people carry cards that use digital chips to hold account information. The chip generates a unique code every time it's used. That makes the cards more difficult for criminals to replicate. So difficult that they generally don't bother.
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The simple, square, card-swiping machines that consumers are used to seeing at most checkout counters are hard to infiltrate because they are completely separate from the Internet. But as retailers switch to faster, Internet-based payment systems they may expose customer data to hackers.
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