Millions Affected by Target Credit/Debit Card Breach

The Secret Service is now investigating a data breach at Target. Millions of credit/debit card numbers have been compromised at Target stores.

If you shopped at a Target store between Thanksgiving day and December 15th, your card may have been compromised. It appears that the online operations at Target.com have not been compromised.

The thieves stole track data from credit/debit cards. Track data is what’s encoded onto that black magnetic stripe on the back of your card.

Crooks can use this data to create a counterfeit card and use it at any place that accepts cards. If they were also able to intercept PIN numbers, they could produce a counterfeit debit card and use it to withdraw cash from ATMs.

If you shopped at Target between Thanksgiving day and December 15th, I would recommend calling your credit/debit card customer service as soon as possible. You may want to request a completely new card.

At the time this post was written, Target has not commented on the situation.