So it turns out that the TJX data breach first reported earlier this year couldn’t have been any worse if the company had simply hired the hacker and given him all-access network privileges.
Since exactly what happened remains unknown or undisclosed, I suppose we cannot rule out that possibility.
A whopping 45.7 million credit and debit card numbers – the largest loss of its kind, according to experts quoted in press reports – were lifted in this heist. TJX is headquartered in Framingham, Mass., the next town over from where I sit.
“It’s the biggest card heist ever,” Gartner’s Avivah Litan told the Boston Globe. “It’s done considerable damage.”
In addition to the 45.7 million cards, another 455,000 shoppers who returned items without a receipt – this will teach ’em – had their personal data stolen.
The grim news was revealed yesterday in financial reports filed by the company.
The magnitude of the theft – merely the most prominent in what seems to be a never-ending string – is sure to fan the flames for more investigations such as the one recently launched by the Federal Trade Commission.
And it’s also sure to have TJX executives sharpening their pencils to craft one of those increasingly common apology letters that have become standard fare in these situations. Network World recently took a look at the best of breed when it comes to this sort of thing.
What a mess.
(Update: A few background/supplemental stories around the TJX situation: Breach worse than thought … TJX: A case study in what to do wrong … Mass. attorney general leads probe … TJX apology letter: We give it a 5 … Bill would put responsibility on retailers … Boards need to wake up … and … So sorry we lost your data.)
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