8 headline-making POS data breaches

The rash of data breaches in the US through POS terminals has many looking the Chip and PIN model used in Europe.

POS swipes
Next month marks an unceremonious anniversary of the 1960s-vintage “swipe-and-signature” magnetic stripe card system. To some the end of this point-of-sale terminal is not a moment too soon. While talks continue on implementing the “chip and PIN” system, we look back at the most recent incidents involving stealing information from these devices.

Home Depot
Data thieves were the ones following The Home Depot’s credo of “More doing,” as they did more doing with other people’s money. The Home Depot reported a data breach earlier in September. The home improvement store confirmed that 2,200 stores were compromised in U.S and Canada. The number of credit cards affected may have reached 56 million.

Target
Around 70 million customers found coal in their stockings when Target was targeted by thieves just before this past Christmas.

Michaels
The arts and craft chain reported more than 3 million credit cards affected by identity theft. This was a big one-two punch with Target’s breach occuring just a month earlier.

Beef O’Brady
Customers have a beef with the Beef O’Brady restaurants when in early September they were the victim of a data breach to the Florida chain’s point of sale system. There have been no reports yet how many cards were affected by the breach.

Dairy Queen
Dairy Queen was hit with a blizzard of credit card numbers stolen at the end of August. According to Privacyrights.org: Dairy Queen has reported a data breach of their POS (Point of Sale) system when malware authorities are calling “Backoff” was found on the system. Currently the restaurant chain is unclear as to how many stores were affected.

PF Changs
CSO’s Dave Lewis reported: On June 10th 2014 the staff at PF Chang’s received a visit that they didn’t want to have come knocking on their door. The US Secret Service came calling to alert the restaurant chain that they had been compromised by a criminal gang that was stealing data from their point of sale systems.

Shaws and Star Market
Shaw’s and Star Market have more than 50 grocery stores in Massachusetts but there has been no report on how many credit cards were ripped off.

TJ Maxx
At over 45 million, the 2007 data breach at TJ Maxx is the grand daddy of them all. According to Computerworld: In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, the company said 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen from one of its systems over a period of more than 18 months by an unknown number of intruders.

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