The Biggest Data Breaches of the Year (Gulp) So Far
July 23, 2014 11:28 AM
The Target data breach last year, which exposed the data of up to 110 million cardholders, reigns as the largest security lapse of the past 12 months. But this year has seen at least five other noteworthy cases of card data theft, all targeting retailers.
(Image: Fotolia)
Goodwill Industries
As of July 18, Goodwill Industries is investigating a possible theft of customer card data. The charity sells donated clothing and household items and uses the proceeds to fund job training programs and employment placement services. According to security blogger Brian Krebs, financial institutions have identified multiple Goodwill stores as likely points of compromise for an unknown number of credit and debit cards.
P.F. Chang's
On June 10, restaurant chain P.F. Chang's learned of a security compromise involving credit and debit card data reportedly stolen from some of its restaurants. It initiated an investigation with the United States Secret Service and a team of third-party forensics experts. That investigation is still underway, and no details have been released yet about the number of cardholders or restaurants affected.
Domino's Pizza
In mid-June, hackers demanded a ransom of about $40,000 from Domino's Pizza after stealing personal data on 592,000 French and 58,000 Belgian customers. The hackers, a group called Rex Mundi, claimed the stolen data includes customers' full names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passwords, delivery instructions and favorite pizza toppings. They posted a sample of the stolen user data along with a demand for ransom to not publish the full set.
(Image: Bloomberg News)
Michaels
In April, the craft-store chain Michaels confirmed that credit and debit card information had been stolen from three million customers who shopped at some of its stores during an eight-month period. The retailer had disclosed the data breach in January but gave few details then of what occurred or how many customers were affected. In an update, the company said criminals broke into its payment system last year, targeting its point-of-sale machines. About 2.6 million cards and 23 stores were affected.
(Image: Bloomberg News)
Sally Beauty
In March, beauty supply store company Sally Beauty Holdings said it had detected an unauthorized intrusion into its network that compromised at least 25,000 customer records. "As a result of the continuing investigation, we now understand that a larger number of additional records containing payment card data may have been illegally accessed and removed from our systems," the company acknowledged.
