What you should do about the Target data breach
Target today provided an update on the customer information data breach that was first disclosed last month. Instead of the 40 million individuals that were originally thought to be impacted by the breach, the number has now reached 70 million and is still climbing, with stolen information including names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
The company stressed that this latest discovery was not the result of a new breach but rather was uncovered as part of the ongoing investigation into the original data theft. The unauthorized access took place between November 27th and December 15th, 2013 and potentially impacted every customer who used a payment card at any of the 1,800 U.S.-based Target stores during that timeframe.
As part of the latest announcement, Target again stressed that customers will not be responsible for fraudulent charges, although that offers little comfort to the millions of individuals who now realize they have been exposed to wholesale identity theft as well as credit and debit card fraud.
So if you are a Target customer, what should you do to protect yourself? Well, there are a few simple steps you can take and some that are a little more complicated. Here’s a quick run through of the recommended actions:
Check your statements
The first step is to thoroughly check your bank and credit card statements to make sure you haven’t already been subjected to fraudulent activity. As The New York Times reported, there was a ten- to twentyfold increase in the number of high-value stolen payment cards on black market web sites immediately following the Target data breach. While Target released a statement on December 20th saying it was aware of only a few incidents of unlawful activity, criminals will often wait until the early security scare has died down before initiating those first fraudulent transactions.
Cancel your card
This is a hard thing to do – it can be a huge inconvenience – but it’s a very important step in protecting both your credit and your identity. As suggested above, it’s easy to get a false sense of security when those fraudulent charges don’t show up in the first couple of weeks but that’s what the bad guys are relying on.
If you replace your card, go back over your credit or debit card statements for the last 12 months and make a note of all the automatic monthly payments and direct debits. They can include anything from Netflix fees to your iTunes account to domain name registrations. I replaced a commonly used credit card early last year and I am still getting notices from various service providers about declined charges.
Even though it’s an inconvenience, replacing the impacted payment card is the right thing to do. The data on that card has been compromised and it’s all too easy for that information to fall into the wrong hands.
Check your credit reports
If you don’t already check your credit reports, then this is the perfect opportunity to start doing so. Although you can request a free credit report from the three main credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, this will only give you a once-a-year snapshot of your credit picture. If you’re at risk from the Target data breach, it would be better to engage a credit monitoring service, which will automatically notify you of any change to your credit status, however minor.
In fact, as part of its response to the data breach, Target is offering customers free credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Although details of the plan have yet to be released, the service will include complimentary credit reports, daily credit monitoring, identity theft insurance, and access to personalized assistance. While some customers might balk at the thought of handing over social security numbers and additional personal information to a company that was the target of one of the biggest ever data thefts, it is definitely something worth considering.
In summary, close monitoring of all your financial transactions and credit history is the key to coming out of this unscathed, and doing nothing is the worst possible option. Not surprisingly, Target is heavily engaged in damage control right now and you should be doing the same.
I am regular visitor, how are you everybody?
This post posted at this website is truly fastidious.
I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your blog.
It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more pleasant for me to come
here and visit more often. Did you hire out a
developer to create your theme? Fantastic work!
It’s really a great and helpful piece of information. I am satisfied that you shared this
helpful information with us. Please stay us informed like this.
Thank you for sharing.
This article is in fact a nice one it helps new the web users,
who are wishing for blogging.
No matter if some one searches for his essential thing, therefore he/she wishes to be available that in detail,
therefore that thing is maintained over here.
We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
Your site provided us with valuable info to work on. You’ve done an impressive job and our whole community
will be thankful to you.
These are in fact fantastic ideas in regarding blogging.
You have touched some nice factors here. Any way keep up wrinting.
Thank you a lot for sharing this with all of us you
actually recognize what you’re talking about! Bookmarked. Please also consult with my site =).
We could have a link trade arrangement among us
This piece of writing will help the internet visitors for setting up new website or
even a blog from start to end.
An intriguing discussion is definitely worth
comment. I think that you ought to publish more
about this topic, it might not be a taboo subject but usually people do not discuss
these issues. To the next! Best wishes!!
It’s great that you are getting thoughts from this paragraph as well as from our discussion made at this time.
Hi, I do believe this is a great blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m
going to return yet again since I saved as a favorite it.
Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and continue to guide others.
This is a topic that is close to my heart…
Many thanks! Where are your contact details though?
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The text in your post seem to be running off the screen in Internet explorer.
I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility
but I figured I’d post to let you know. The
layout look great though! Hope you get the problem fixed soon. Thanks
I like the valuable info you provide in your articles.
I will bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently.
I’m quite sure I will learn many new stuff
right here! Best of luck for the next!
What’s up everybody, here every one is sharing such know-how, thus it’s good to read this web site, and I used to go to see this weblog every day.
Just want to say your article is as surprising. The clarity in your post
is just nice and i can assume you are knowledgeable
in this subject. Fine along with your permission allow me to snatch
your feed to keep up to date with approaching post.
Thank you one million and please carry on the enjoyable work.
I’ll immediately clutch your rss feed as I can’t
to find your email subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter
service. Do you have any? Please allow me know in order that I could subscribe.
Thanks.
What’s up everyone, it’s my first visit at this site,
and article is truly fruitful designed for me,
keep up posting these types of posts.
I have been browsing on-line greater than three hours as of late, yet I never found any fascinating article like yours.
It is lovely price sufficient for me. Personally, if all site owners and bloggers made good content material as you did, the internet can be much more useful than ever before.
Thanks for the good writeup. It in reality was a entertainment account it.
Glance complex to far introduced agreeable from you!
By the way, how can we be in contact?
Hi! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so
I came to check it out. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Excellent blog and wonderful design and style.
Hi there i am kavin, its my first time to
commenting anyplace, when i read this article i thought i could also create comment due to this good
piece of writing.
Hola! I’ve been reading your site for a while now and finally got the bravery to go
ahead and give you a shout out from Humble Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the
good work!
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering
if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet
my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like
this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have
some experience with something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog
and I look forward to your new updates.
At this moment I am going to do my breakfast, when having my breakfast coming over again to read more news.
Hello! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog platform
are you using for this website? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had problems with hackers
and I’m looking at options for another platform.
I would be awesome if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Excellent blog you have here but I was curious if you knew of any user discussion forums
that cover the same topics discussed here? I’d really like
to be a part of online community where I can get suggestions from other experienced people that share the same interest.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Bless you!
Hello, its fastidious article concerning media print, we all be familiar
with media is a impressive source of information.
Hi mates, good post and good arguments commented at this place,
I am really enjoying by these.
It is appropriate time to make a few plans for the long run and it’s time to be happy.
I’ve read this post and if I may just I want to suggest you
some interesting issues or suggestions. Perhaps you could write next articles referring to this article.
I want to learn more things about it!
whoah this blog is magnificent i like reading your articles.
Stay up the good work! You already know, many individuals are searching round for this info, you could aid them greatly.
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time
a comment is added I get several emails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove people from
that service? Thanks!
Hi, I would like to subscribe for this blog to get newest updates, therefore where can i do it
please help out.
Hello there! Do you know if they make any plugins to
protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about
losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any recommendations?
I was able to find good info from your blog articles.
When someone writes an paragraph he/she keeps the idea of a user in his/her brain that how a user can be aware of it.
So that’s why this piece of writing is amazing.
Thanks!
I like reading through a post that will make men and women think.
Also, many thanks for allowing for me to comment!
Peculiar article, exactly what I wanted to find.
great put up, very informative. I ponder why the opposite specialists of
this sector do not notice this. You should proceed your writing.
I am confident, you’ve a huge readers’ base already!
hi!,I really like your writing very much!
share we keep in touch extra about your article on AOL?
I need an expert on this house to resolve my problem.
Maybe that’s you! Having a look forward to look you.
website
Hello theonlinemom.com admin, Nice post!
Hello there! Quick question that’s totally off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly?
My website looks weird when browsing from my apple iphone.
I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might
be able to correct this issue. If you have any suggestions, please share.
Thank you!
After checking out a handful of the blog articles on your blog, I seriously
appreciate your way of writing a blog. I saved it to my bookmark
website list and will be checking back in the near future.
Please check out my website too and let me know your opinion.
Hello there! This is my first visit to your blog!
We are a team of volunteers and starting a new project in a community
in the same niche. Your blog provided us valuable information to work on. You have done a
extraordinary job!
It is not my first time to go to see this website, i am browsing
this web site dailly and get fastidious facts from here every day.
Hello there! This blog post couldn’t be written much better!
Looking through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He always kept preaching about this. I’ll send this information to him.
Fairly certain he will have a very good read. Thank you for sharing!
Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the images
on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out
if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog.
Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Very shortly this web page will be famous among all blog viewers,
due to it’s nice content
My partner and I stumbled over here different web page
and thought I should check things out. I like what I see
so now i’m following you. Look forward to looking over your web page again.
Thanks for sharing such a nice opinion, post is fastidious, thats why i have read
it fully
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
Thanks a lot!
Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this web site before but after browsing through many of the articles I realized it’s
new to me. Anyhow, I’m certainly pleased I discovered it and I’ll be bookmarking
it and checking back regularly!
I always used to study piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a user of
web therefore from now I am using net for articles, thanks to web.
Thank you for any other informative blog. Where
else may I am getting that type of info written in such an ideal manner?
I have a undertaking that I’m simply now running on, and I’ve been on the look out for such info.
Hey there, You’ve done a fantastic job. I’ll certainly digg it and personally recommend to my friends.
I’m confident they will be benefited from this site.
Hello! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a
quick shout out and say I genuinely enjoy reading through your posts.
Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics?
Thank you so much!
I like the valuable information you provide in your articles.
I’ll bookmark your blog and check again here frequently.
I am quite certain I’ll learn many new stuff right here!
Good luck for the next!
What’s up mates, how is everything, and what you wish
for to say concerning this paragraph, in my view its actually remarkable in support of me.
Your style is so unique in comparison to other people
I have read stuff from. I appreciate you for posting when you have the
opportunity, Guess I will just book mark this page.
My brother recommended I would possibly like this web
site. He used to be entirely right. This publish truly made my day.
You can not consider just how so much time I
had spent for this info! Thanks!
Aw, this was a really nice post. Taking a few minutes
and actual effort to create a really good article… but what can I say… I put things off a whole lot and don’t manage to get anything done.
Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts.
After all I’ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again soon!