Feds Investigating Target Breach

Attorney General Holder Confirms Inquiry
Feds Investigating Target Breach
Eric Holder

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has confirmed that the Department of Justice is investigating the massive Target breach that affected tens of millions of customers.

See Also: Effective Communication Is Key to Successful Cybersecurity

"We are committed to working to find not only the perpetrators of these sorts of data breaches, but also any individuals and groups who exploit that data via credit card fraud," Holder said in his Jan. 29 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

The Target breach exposed details on as many as 40 million credit and debit cards, including encrypted PINs, along with personally identifiable information about 70 million customers.

In his testimony, Holder said cybersecurity is one of the top challenges the Justice Department is confronting.

Retail Breaches Spark Action

John Mulligan, CFO of Target Corp., will testify Feb. 4 at a hearing of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on breach prevention and cybercrime.

Also scheduled to testify are representatives from the Justice Department, Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Secret Service, as well as Consumers Union.

The House Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee has announced that a Target official, along with law enforcement officials, will testify at a hearing the week of Feb. 3 about the retailer's breach. The panel has not yet set the date of the hearing nor revealed all of those testifying [see: ABA, Retailers To Testify on Breaches].

Representatives of the American Bankers Association, the National Retail Federation and the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council are among those slated to testify at a Feb. 3 Senate hearing on safeguarding consumers' financial data. Also slated to testify are representatives of the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Outreach to Congress

The Independent Community Bankers of America and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Jan. 28 calling for reforms to secure consumer financial data.

"In the wake of recent, wide-scale data breaches at Target, Neiman Marcus and other retailers, which have jeopardized more than 100 million individuals, the need for Congressional action has never been greater," the letter says.

Earlier, the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable and the National Retail Federation wrote Congress to advocate legislative reform aimed at protecting individuals' information.


About the Author

Jeffrey Roman

Jeffrey Roman

News Writer, ISMG

Roman is the former News Writer for Information Security Media Group. Having worked for multiple publications at The College of New Jersey, including the College's newspaper "The Signal" and alumni magazine, Roman has experience in journalism, copy editing and communications.




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