Over 4 Million Credit and Debit Card Numbers Exposed in Data Breach
A recent data breach is being called one of the largest in history. The security breach exposed about 4.2 million unique credit and debit card numbers and has caused approximately 1,800 cases of identity fraud to date.
The Hannaford Bros. grocery chain recently announced the security breach saying that credit and debit card numbers of customers had been stolen during the authorization process. The company says that all of its 165 stores in the Northeast, 106 Sweetbay stores in Florida, and a number of independent grocery stores that sell Hannaford products were affected in the breach.
Although no personal information such as names, addresses or telephone numbers was exposed, the data breach still caused about 1,800 Hannaford customers to become victims of identity theft. The chain has vowed to up security procedures but that is little consolation to the large number of people who were affected in the breach. After becoming a victim of identity theft, it can take months, if not years, to correct the damage that can be done to consumer's credit reports.
The Associated Press reports that the company became aware of the breach on February 27 but an investigation revealed that the credit and debit cards began being exposed on December 7. The security flaw was not corrected until March 10.
Hannaford has advised that its customers should pay close attention to their bank and credit card statements and immediately report any unusual activity to authorities. The company also says that consumers should be aware that Hannaford representatives will not be sending e-mails or making calls to collect personal information, and such calls and e-mails should be treated as suspicious. The U.S. Secret Service is investigating the data breach.
Before Hannaford made the announcement about this massive data breach, MasterCard issued a statement indicating that authorities were investigating the incident.
According to Beth Givens, the director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, customers who used their debit cards at Hannaford stores are most vulnerable to identity fraud. Because debit cards are directly connected to a consumer's bank account, identity thieves can drain the bank accounts quickly and even push people into bankruptcy.
Banks usually reverse fraudulent credit card charges, but although debit cards look and can be used in the same way as credit cards, the two are different financial instruments with different rules. Fraudulent debit card transactions are generally more difficult for consumers to recover.
Although the Hannaford data breach exposed a tremendous amount of account numbers, it was still far less than the largest data breach known to date. Last year TJX Cos., parent company of T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, announced that a data breach that began in 2005 exposed at least 45.7 million credit card numbers although banks' court filings indicate that the number of accounts that were exposed was actually more than 100 million.