Supermarket data breach affects 4.2 million accounts
March 17, 2008 04:43 PM
The Hannaford Bros. supermarket chain said a breach of its computer system led to the theft of about 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers from its Hannaford and Sweetbay stores and other locations.
Hannaford, based in Maine, said about 1,800 cases of fraud have been tied to the breach, but no personal information -- such as names or addresses -- was accessed, and it has contained the breach. The security lapse is the latest to affect a large retailer, and comes amid tougher scrutiny on the payments industry following a breach that emerged last year that compromised as many as 100 million card numbers of customers of Framingham retailer TJX Cos.
Hannaford operates 165 stores in the Northeast. There are 106 Sweetbay supermarkets in Florida. The company said in a statement posted to its website that the stolen data was "illegally accessed from our computer systems during transmission of card authorization.''
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If you'd like to see some real-world solutions to the computer security morass, I recommend Bruce Schnier's excellent book "Secrets and Lies".
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator
(Please put [Telecom] at the end of the subject line of your post, or I may never see it. Thanks!)