At the end of 2013, American retailer Target was hit by a major data breach in the United States. Target operates more than 1800 stores in the US. It generated USD 73.3 billion in revenue in 2012.

The matter can be summarized as follows:

• The data breach affected debit and credit card transactions carried out between November 27 and December 15, 2013.
• Forty million cards and 70 million customer accounts may have been affected.
• Only stores in the United States were involved. Canadian stores and the website were not, therefore, affected.
• The criminals used a computer virus.

The table below compares major data breaches which have taken place in recent years.

2007 – TJX: 100 million cards, personal information
2008 – RBS Worldpay: 1.5 million accounts
2009 – Heartland Payment Systems: 130 million cards
2011 – Sony (Playstation Network): 77 million customer accounts, 12 million cards, worldwide
2012 – Global Payments: 1.5 million cards, US only
2013 – Target: 40 million cards, 70 million client accounts, US only

Source: Target Corp., ACCEO research
Date: December 2013 and January 2014
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