TJX Breach - One of the Worst Breaches, Says Banks

The huge computer information violation at TJX (TJX) may be biggest ever so far. As indicated by court documents registered by an association of banks, over 94 Million accounts fell prey to hackers due to an enormous security failure experienced by TJX, the leading retailer based in Massachusetts.

A lawsuit filed by a bank against TJX showed that scam-related losses concerning Visa cards varied from $68 Million to $83 Million, and spanned 13 nations. Another filing cautioned that the count would go up as hackers keep on misusing information garnered from the exploited cards.

The papers that were filed in the US District Court of Boston on October 23, 2007 alleged that in contrast to other minor data thefts where 'amateur cyber-terrorists' may have controlled information without any intention to pull a rip off, in this instance, there is every chance that the exposed information would be exploited for unlawful uses, points the news reported on October 24, 2007 by Channel Register.

TJX thinks that hackers lifted the information through unprotected wireless networks at two of the Marshall outlets based in Miami. As reported by Washingtonpost on October 24, 2007, some experts have figured that the TJX could run up expenditures totaling to $1 Billion, inclusive of legal settlements and losses incurred in sales.

Sherry Lang, the TJX representative stated that the firm is standing by its estimate. She added that three-fourth of those accounts had become invalid or the information was disguised -- looking like asterisks rather than numbers -- when the data was stolen.

Nobody has been detained for attacking the computing systems of TJX. However, in another case this very year, six Florida residents were found guilty for their parts in a gang that exploited the burgled TJX client information to purchase gift cards and products estimated at about $1 Million.

From the several papers registered by both sides in the TJX breach case concerning different banks, hardly anything novel was discovered about the attack apart from information gathered from larger number of affected users.

TJX was severely criticized for permitting this violation to take place. In September 2007, the Canadian privacy commissioner denounced the firm for gathering surplus information and employing unsatisfactory methods of security.

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» SPAMfighter News - 11/14/2007