Expect More: Target gives all customers special discount to ensure Christmas …

Data breach led to theft of credit card information for 40 million Target customers who shopped the first three weeks of holiday season
Data for millions of cards are being sold on black markets for $20-$100
Target is trying to contain the backlash by offering free credit monitoring and a 10% discount all weekend
One man speeding in Brooklyn was pulled over and cops found $20,000 worth of Apple goods bought with gift cards that had been purchased using the stolen credit card data

By
Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED:

10:35 EST, 21 December 2013

|
UPDATED:

10:41 EST, 21 December 2013

The CEO of Target has apologized for slower call center and website access and is now offering a 10 percent discount to lure customers back into stores, after a massive data breach left information of about 40 million shoppers vulnerable to hackers.

CEO Gregg Steinhafel said on Friday that the issue of unauthorized access to payment card data at their U.S. stores ‘has been identified and eliminated’, and not all customers who shopped between Black Friday and last week are victims of fraud.

‘Most importantly, we want to reassure guests that they will not be held financially responsible for any credit and debit card fraud,’ he told ABC News.

‘And to provide guests with extra assurance, we will be offering free credit monitoring services. We will be in touch with those impacted by this issue soon on how and where to access the service.’

Steinhafel apologized to guests who tried to reach Target via its website or call center while it faces ‘unprecedented call volume’.

Out of the store: The credit card data for millions of Target shoppers is now being sold on the black market after a massive security breach that hit more than 40million shoppers

Investigators believe that overseas
hackers were responsible for the cyber attack on Target that compromised
up to 40 million payment cards during the first three weeks of the
holiday shopping season.

The
company is scrambling to contain the massive public backlash to
Wednesday’s news and on Friday announced offering storewide 10%
discounts this weekend and free credit monitoring

Brian Krebs, reporting for KrebsOnSecurity.com
reported on Friday that cards stolen from Target were being offered at the black market
‘card shops’ for rates starting at $20 each and going to more than $100.

A person familiar with the matter, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the matter, said that government investigators do not believe that the hackers had inside help.

The source declined to say how the hackers got in or where investigators believe they are based, saying investigators don’t want to show their hand to the criminals or afford them a chance to destroy evidence.

A Secret Service spokesman declined comment on the investigation, which the agency is running.

The retailer reported the breach on Thursday, a day after news broke of the attack. Target has declined to say how its systems were compromised and has provided few other details about the case.

Spokeswoman Molly Snyder released a written statement on Friday that downplayed the initial impact from the incident.

‘To date, we are hearing very few reports of actual fraud, but are closely monitoring the situation,’ she said.

She said the stolen information was limited to data stored on the magnetic strip.

The hackers did not obtain PIN numbers used to access ATMs or the three or four-digit security codes that are printed on cards to verify online purchases, Snyder said.

She said Target has provided exposed card numbers to Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Those companies are in turn providing the information to the financial institutions that issue them.

The retailer said it was offering a 10 percent discount on December 21 and 22 and free credit monitoring, calling the situation ‘confusing and disruptive’.

They are also adding more people to answer the phone as some potential credit card fraud victims have said they were having trouble reaching the store.

Tricky: Credit card information stolen from a Target customer was used to purchase a gift card that then was used to buy $20,000 worth of Apple products found in a Brooklyn car

A traffic stop may have exposed at least one purchase of stolen data.

A speeding driver who was pulled over in Brooklyn on Thursday was found to have up to $20,000 worth of stolen Apple products in his car and now police are investigating whether or not those items were connected to the collection of Target customers’ financial data.

The accidental discovery came after a series of mistakes on the part of the alleged thieves, as Isiah Ramdaran was pulled over in Flatbush after running a red light.

The New York Post reports that when he opened the glove compartment to get his registration papers, police saw that it was also holding a loaded 32-caliber handgun.

That reveal prompted police to search the vehicle and they found Target bags filled with 17 Apple iPad Airs, 14 Apple iPad Minis and 11 iTouches.

Those Apple products are not believed to have been used to steal the information, but instead they may be the byproduct of it since they were purchased with gift cards that had been bought with the stolen credit card information.

Target spokeswoman said the stolen information was limited to data stored on the magnetic strip and she tried on Friday to downplay the situation

There were two
other men in the car but their names have not been released, though they
were charged with possession of stolen property and a gun alongside
21-year-old Isiah Ramdaran.

All of the Apple products in the car were bought in Target stores across Long Island and neighboring areas.

Those were far from the only stores effected by the credit card data theft, which is the second biggest in U.S. history.

An earlier theory about the theft suggested that hackers broke into Target’s computer system and installed data mining software on credit card machines.

That software is installed on 40,000 machines across the 1,797 stores in the U.S.

All the card details were then sent back to the hackers through the internet over the course of three weeks before the theft was discovered.

The software could have spread through the Target network after being installed on a company machine, possibly by fooling an employee into clicking on a fake link in a ‘phishing’ scam.

The breach did not affect online purchases, Target officials said.