TJX Breach Twice as Nasty - Twenty-Four Seven Security

« SMB State of Insecurity | Main | Many Companies Are Chasing the Wrong Security Risks: Podcast with Security Innovation »

October 24, 2007
TJX Breach Twice as Nasty

The TJX data breach is starting to look like the oil spill that just won't stop growing. Initially, TJX reported having lost 46 million customer records, but according to the blog Storefront Backtalk, the total number of consumers slimed by the breach now stands at 96 million, which breaks down into 29 million carrying MasterCards and another 65 million holding Visa.

This new count came to light because of the court filings of the attorneys representing the banks suing TJX.

"Beginning in July 2005, TJX experienced a massive intrusion into its computer systems, resulting in the largest data security breach in history and the compromise of an unprecedented amount of confidential nonpublic consumer personal data," said the plaintiff filing. "Although TJX suggests that the breach only affected approximately 45.7 million accounts, in fact the breach during a period of 17 months affected more than 94 million separate accounts. To date, Visa has calculated the fraud losses experienced by issuers as a result of the breach to be between $68 million and $83 million on Visa accounts alone."

As this suit stands to be precedent setting in both sheer size and concerning who should bear the brunt of the costs, I promise to keep you up-to-date on developments. And maybe the song that goes, "If I had a dime for every time I thought of you, I would be through" should be changed to, "If I had a dime for every TJX data breach, I would be through, and my kids would be through, and my kids' kids would be through, and my kids' kids' kids..." Well, you get the point.