ABSTRACT
A major hack of the retailer Target stole credit and debit cards from 40 million accounts in December 2013. They announced that cards used between November 27 and December 15, 2013 may have been impacted. Target said there is no indication that any debit card PIN numbers were compromised. The retailer also claimed it doesn't appear that the three- or four-digit security codes visible on the face of credit cards were breached. That means that the debit and credit cards that were compromised cannot be used to withdraw cash from an ATM or to shop online. A few days after the breach, Target Corp. hired security experts at Verizon to probe its networks for weaknesses. While Target has a password policy, the Verizon security consultants discovered that it was not being followed. The Verizon consultants discovered a file containing valid network credentials being stored on several servers.
