Now I Get It: Watch your Wi-Fi
Harsh payback: catching up with the Target data leak
Hackers can turn a simple shopping trip into a long, costly nightmare for unsuspecting consumers.
The payment card breach that slammed Target at the tail end of 2013 lives in infamy as the first of what has seemed to be an endless onslaught of similar-style payment card breaches of retailers, eateries and other merchants in the years since. Malware installed on Target’s payment system stole the information of every card swiped during the busiest shopping time of the year, Black Friday, impacting an approximate 40 million payment cards (including encrypted PINs) and customers’ personal information, including email addresses and phone numbers, ultimately impacting more than 100 million customers.
No matter the scale, just managing such breaches can be extremely costly, and result in a damaged reputation and profit loss.
Target settled a $10 million class-action lawsuit in 2015, promising to pay up to $10,000 to customers who could provide evidence of losses directly resulting from the breach. Unfortunately, since the burden of proof in cases like this is on the victim, it’s unlikely many people will actually see any money from this settlement. Although consumer confidence in Target was rattled, the retailer is doing well just four years later. The same style of malware has hit many other retailers, such as Home Depot.
Retailers and consumers alike can shop more securely thanks to Peer Mountain’s blockchain-based software solution. The platform shares payment card information cryptographically with the vendor to complete transactions. Neither the credit card company nor the retailer needs to maintain records of this information in their respective databases, helping prevent Target-like breaches.
Join us in Telegram and get all the news first: https://t.me/peermountain
