Macy’s Data Breach May Have Hit Card Data

Data breaches seem to be an increasing fact of life when it comes to online shopping and mobile payments. Despite rapid advancements in security, businesses are still hit with crippling breaches that seize data and harm reputations throughout the field. Macy’s is one of the most recent firms so hit, and it’s looking like the hit might be a bad one.

The good news is that according to representatives, the data breach impacted just half of one percent of customers registered on either Macys.com or Bloomingdales.com. So basically, there’s a 99.5 percent chance that this doesn’t apply to you. The bad news, however, is that if you’re in that 0.5 percent that should be concerned, you should be very concerned.

The hackers, Macy’s notes, picked up not only names and passwords of online customers, but also possibly credit card numbers and expiration dates. Birthdates might also have been accessed, but Social Security numbers were apparently not an issue here. Those customers who may have been affected by this have already been contacted, reports note, and Macy’s is offering various consumer protection services at no cost accordingly.

Such attacks seem increasingly common of late, as reports from Adidas, Under Armour, and Hudson’s Bay all came in within the last few months detailing some new hacking strike that netted at least some personal information.

Yet in the midst of all this, we see how Macy’s is handling this exactly as it should. It’s notified affected customers promptly—almost as soon as it knew what was going on—and it’s extended offers of protective measures at no cost to the customer. That’s exactly how a data breach should be handled. We can’t shove our heads in the sand and pretend these don’t happen. They do, and far too often to be just shoved under the rug. We must be ready for when they do; quick notification and protective measures for the customers, and hopefully, encryption for the stores. I’ve harped on this point several times; take steps to make your stolen data worthless, not just try and protect it from every breach.

In the end, Macy’s has done right by its customers, and that’s what counts in the end. Hopefully the market will reward Macy’s by continuing to shop there.