Yet another retail chain is reporting a serious security breach. This time, it's arts and crafts provider Michael's.
Michael's confirmed an unknown number of credit cards were exposed and said it was "taking aggressive action to determine the nature and scope of the issue."
Both the federal government and a computer forensics firm are investigating. Michael's is the third major retailer that’s recently fallen victim to such a breach, joining Target and luxury chain Neiman Marcus.
During the holiday shopping season, Target reported a breach affecting over 40 million credit cards while just over one million cards were exposed in a months-long leak at Nieman Marcus. (Via WTNH)
Both Target and Neiman Marcus have offered victims free credit monitoring and Target is facing class action lawsuits after the incident.
With the hacks grabbing major headlines, many are lobbying for new safety measures, including new EMV chip technology designed to thwart similar attacks.
According to its website, this "EMV," Eurocard, MasterCard and Visa, technology has been adopted by 80% of Western Europe but hasn’t caught on in the U.S.
BYRNES: "There hasn’t been an industry-wide guideline set, saying this is the D-Day, this is when these cards need to come to the U.S."
ROGERS: "But the cost of being hacked clearly outweighs the cost of the terminals, right?"
BYRNES: "You would think so." (Via Fox Business)
Both Target and Michael's are looking into the compromised systems and a statement from Neiman Marcus says the chain is "reviewing our intrusion detection systems and firewalls and reinforcing our security tools" after their breach.
Details are still sparse on the extent of the Michael’s breach. In 2011, the store was attacked by hackers who stole almost 100,000 card numbers from customers.
