When Will We Measure Consumer Security Confidence? - Twenty-Four Seven Security

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December 17, 2007
When Will We Measure Consumer Security Confidence?

Reading the latest news on TJX -- which says that TJX, after compromising as many as 45.7 million credit card numbers (with the banks claiming 94 million accounts were compromised) in a massive data breach, has offered to settle with both Visa and Mastercard for $40.9 million -- makes me wonder when some sort of consumer security confidence measurement will come into play.

While $40.9 million marks a pretty pricey mishap, some of the worst news to come out of the incident is some recent revelations that TJX (which owns TJ Maxx) knew about the data breach two months before, in October, before they went public with the problem. What do you want to bet the powers-that-be at TJX decided to keep quiet to avoid any negative publicity during the holiday shopping season?

One of the more surprising things to come out of this whole TJX debacle is the fact that, with all the attention this data breach has received, it hasn't seemed to hurt sales at TJ Maxx. But you know what, I understand. This is essentially the first widespread data breach (but definitely not the last), and most consumers simply aren't all that informed about the retailer side of data protection and don't really know whose at fault.

The whole idea of consumer security is still pretty new (to consumers), and as far as they know, the credit card companies bear most of the risk. But a real dishonest-to-goodness identity theft can really disrupt someone's life. It happened to a friend of mine (got her info out of the garbage), and it took her about a year and a half to clear everything up (and she was an attorney).

Consumers will become educated, and in the not too distant future, expect consumer security confidence to start playing a role in where consumers shop.