Target Co among the victims of the biggest identity theft in U.S. history2009-12-30 10:03 by DanielaTags: identity theft, hacking
Target Co said it was among the victims of computer hacker Albert Gonzalez, mastermind of the biggest identity theft in U.S. history. The 28-year-old college dropout pleaded guilty on Tuesday to charges that he stole more than 170 million payment card numbers by breaking into corporate computer systems from businesses including Target. Gonzalez, under the plea agreement, faces 17 years to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in March. Target spokeswoman Amy Reilly said her company was among the victims, having had an "extremely limited" number of payment card numbers stolen by Gonzalez about two years ago. She declined to say how many card numbers had been stolen, and described the term of the exposure as brief. "A previously planned security enhancement was already under way at the time the criminal activity against Target occurred," Reilly said. "We believe that, at most, only a tiny fraction of guest credit and debit card data used at our stores may have been involved." She said that Target had notified the card issuers, leaving them to tell their customers. Read the full Reuters story -here-
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