Target Card Breach Demonstrates Nothing is Sacred

A massive security breach at Target retail locations has compromised the payment details of an estimated 40 million shoppers.

First reported by KrebsOnSecurity, Target confirmed, “40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, 2013,” at the height of sales driven by Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

Though the breach is limited to affecting only customers who shopped in stores, 40 million is still a staggering number, and this could go down as one of the largest failures in security in recent memory.

Experts speculate that the card scanners at POS systems were accessed, providing the hackers with cardholder names, card numbers, expiration dates, as well as security codes. This would mean that criminals could make fraudulent purchases, but also steal identities, open up bogus accounts, and make life generally miserable to those affected.

This is not necessarily a case against magnetic strip technology on credit and debit cards, since the actual POS terminals were most likely contaminated with malware. The distinction is that hackers didn’t penetrate archived payment details. They sniffed out transaction details in real-time.

What this does demonstrate is that no system is completely safe, and it will likely generate negative backlash toward Target and card usage in general.

Security has reached the forefront of payments and there’s been speculation that U.S. consumers are not ready to fully trust their mobile devices to carry out transactions. This development may shake consumers’ belief in the old card swipe standby as well as hinder mobile payment adoption in the foreseeable future.