Well, it looks like not only the holiday shoppers received presents last month…

Target was breached TWICE:

  • Target’s breach affects millions who shopped at their stores: “Approximately 40 million credit and debit card accounts may have been impacted between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, 2013,”
  • Personal info of 70 million Target customers compromised: stolen information includes names, mailing addresses, phone numbers or email addresses for up to 70 million individuals!

1.1 million luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, PLUS three other unnamed US retailers were also breached…

In the wake of the revelation that US retail giant Target has been targeted by cyber thieves comes the news that American luxury department store, Neiman Marcus also suffered a breach during the end of the year holidays, as well as three other unspecified US retailers.

In the meantime, Reuters reported that according to unnamed sources familiar with the Target and Neiman Marcus attacks, three other US retailers with mall outlets have been breached during the holidays in a similar manner.

Apparently, law enforcement believe that the attackers originate from Eastern Europe, and might be behind all these breeches, but that theory is yet to be proven.

What can you do to protect yourself?

  • First, don’t panic. If you have any fraudulent charges, you will not be liable for them.
  • Always check your monthly statements and call your credit card co. asap if you see any charge you don’t recognize!
  • You may be inconvenienced by having to wait for new credit or debit cards that your financial institution has considered compromised.
  • Consider using a separate email for retail purposes only.
  • Consider having multiple credit cards (but NOT too many) in case one or two get cancelled at an inconvenient moment…
  • Just say NO to clicking email links…

If you suspect phishing —- and even if you don’t — it’s far safer to take the extra seconds and navigate to the company’s web page yourself and find the data you need.

*** “Just say NO to clicking email links”*** if you will.
For the New Year you can also resolve to create a special email you use only for shopping so it’s easier to cancel if it’s compromised.

Happy New Year to you!
Be ‘safe’ this year!