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TJX Data Breach Grows Wider
David Utter
Staff Writer
2007-02-26
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The hole in the security for the clothing chain was wider than initially reported, and it could spur legislation holding companies responsible for these breaches.
TJX initially disclosed that the intrusion into its systems happened in the May 2006 through January 2007 timeframe. A later statement from the company said attackers penetrated their systems in July 2005, and at other times through that year.
In 2003 and 2004, other data may have been exposed. TJX now says from January 2003 through June 2004, "information regarding portions of the credit and debit card transactions at its U.S., Puerto Rican and Canadian stores (excluding debit card transactions with cards issued by Canadian banks)" has been compromised too.
It is also believed that some card information had been masked between September 2003 and June 2004. TJX said names and addresses were not included in the compromised data.
That's not all. TJX thinks driver's license information from "unreceipted merchandise returns at its T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico for the last four months of 2003 and May and June 2004" has also been exposed. TJX plans to contact those customers whose driver's license data may have been compromised.
The actual breadth of the security problems have not been revealed. It is not known yet how many people may have been impacted by the breach.
In the future, companies that would normally brush off a breach with some credit card monitoring and a public relations blitz may have to deal with legal penalties, according to a report at Dark Reading. Massachusetts has legislation under consideration that would hit a poorly secured company with hefty penalties for failing to proactively protect consumer information.
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Tags: TJX, Data Breach
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About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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