Target wasn't the only retailer in the U.S. to fall prey to hackers, who breached 40 million credit and debit card accounts of its customers. New reports suggest that other retailers may have also been victims of the data breach.
Target was the first to confirm that around 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been breached between November 27 and December 15, 2013, when shoppers made a card payment in one of the retailer's 1,797 bricks-and-mortar store across the country. Names, home address, email address and bank PIN of at least 40 million shoppers were stolen.
The U.S. retailer also issued an official statement confirming that it had identified and fixed the issues, and was working closely with the country's law enforcement agencies to find the culprits behind the cyber attack.
Neiman Marcus, another well-known U.S. department store has also confirmed that its computer security systems were compromised.
The Dallas-based luxury retailer said that it was informed in mid-December 2013 by its credit card processor of potential unauthorized charges on the accounts of some customers who had shopped at its stores. Neiman Marcus investigated the issue and found on January 1 this year that it had been attacked by hackers.
The Wall Street Journal cites sources familiar with details of the incident and said that less than 1 million cards of Neiman Marcus' customers were affected by the breach. However, the retailer declined to comment and said that it is still investigating in the incident.
Now, per a Reuters report, sources familiar with the attacks claim that smaller breaches on at least three other U.S. retailers took place during the 2013 holiday season. The hackers are said to have used similar techniques to the one used on Target. However, the breaches at these unnamed merchants are still to come to light. Moreover, similar breaches may have also occurred in early 2013.
The hackers who attacked Target are likely suspects of the breach that occurred at other merchants. Although hacking technique at the U.S. merchants were similar, it is not certain if all of them were linked. However, law enforcement sources indicate that they suspect the ring leaders of the mass hacking program are from Eastern Europe.
