So Hacked: For Target, the Breach Numbers Grow Elizabeth A. Harris and Nicole Perlroth - The New York Times
go to original January 11, 2014

Target on Friday raised its estimate of the number of customers whose credit and debit card data were stolen late in 2013. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Target on Friday revised the number of customers whose personal information was stolen in a widespread data breach during the holiday season, now reporting a range of 70 million to 110 million people.

The stunning figure represents about a third of all American adults at the low end, and is nearly three times as great as the company’s original estimate at the upper end. The theft is one of the largest ever of retail data.

Not only did Target’s announcement disclose a vastly expanded universe of victims, but it revealed that the hackers had stolen a broader trove of data than originally reported. The company now says that other kinds of information were taken, including mailing and email addresses, phone numbers or names, the kind of data routinely collected from customers during interactions like shopping online or volunteering a phone number when using a call center.

On Dec. 19, Target confirmed reports that payment data was stolen from about 40 million customers who shopped in its stores in the United States from Nov. 27 to mid-December. As its investigation into the theft continued, the company said it had found that an additional quantity of data, collected over time on 70 million people and stored separately from the in-store data, was stolen.

The latest subset of potential victims includes customers who may not have shopped at Target during the holiday period.

Read the rest at The New York Times

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