T.J. Maxx Theft Is Largest Hack Ever

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If you’ve ever shopped at T.J. Maxx, you might want to know that hackers stole the info from 45.7 million credit cards….over two months ago.

Information from 45.7 million cards was stolen from transactions beginning in January 2003 and ending Nov. 23 of that year, TJX said in the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission after business hours Wednesday. TJX did not estimate the number of cards from which information was stolen for transactions occurring from Nov. 24, 2003, to June 28, 2004
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Ummm.. WOW...

Companies should be required to remove card information after so many months, like just keep the last 4 digits.
 
Did it take two months to figure out, or did they hold on to the information.......they should be boiled in oil......
I saw a deal on TV this morning where a guy had his credit card maxed (no pun intended) from charges in Europe and Asia.......traced back to TJM .......huh?
That has me wondering about his credit card company's fraud division as well.

This stuff is getting ridiculous......cash seems to be the only alternative.
 
Simply amazing the terrible security these companies have. Although the government isn't any better losing all those laptops.
 
There is a good chance that if your card was picked up by these guys that yours might not be used. Out of 45.7 million cards, the chances are slim to none that they would use all of them.


Good thing I hate shopping for clothes.
 
Small quibble over the headline. They discovered the theft over two months ago. The theft itself happened years ago.
 
Even with that happening years ago thats still a big mistake by TJX. Their security should have stopped that from happening, but then again we are talkin bout the US here. I mean don't get me wrong I love my country but wow way way to many secruity problems have been happening in the past couple of yrs. (Well heck even now are the same.) I think the next president needs to worry bout National Secruity problems instead of World Wide Problems. Well thats just my 2 cents.
 
...this isn't national security, this is corporate prudence. It's called Ken Lay-ism, and it's pretty much not a big deal as long as the members of the Executive Boards for these companies continue to contribute healthily to the GOP.
 
There are two parts to this story:

1. They arrested six people USING the card information for fraud. That is the big story on several news sites. Great, good for them, they caught somebody.

2. They will NEVER catch the real thieves that hacked the system. That's of course being way overshadowed by today's arrest and making everyone feel better about our law enforcement system.

This is BS. Companies must be held liable for your personal information but at the same time, I encourage everyone to use the gold standard, CASH. I've never been refused using cash and it saves the smaller stores money. Of course there are instances (such as as online purchases) where cash can't be used. If everyone paid cash for gas, it would be 6-7% cheaper just because sellers would not have to pay transaction/usage fees to credit card companies.

Banks make tons of money off of credit cards and our society is going further in debt with each day. Banks pay bonuses of 9-9 digits to chairmen that allow credit card schemes that serve only to take advantage of consumers.

RANT OFF. Use cash, F*ck these large, irresponsible corporations
 
While cash is grand and all.. some gas places (like costco) won't accept cash. As they are 10-13ish cents cheaper and gas around here is $3.40 a gallon every bit helps.
 
Ockie said:
There is a good chance that if your card was picked up by these guys that yours might not be used. Out of 45.7 million cards, the chances are slim to none that they would use all of them.


Good thing I hate shopping for clothes.
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Possibly. However more than likely the info would be worth more to sell to multiple third parties than to use on their own, making it easier to use up all the information.
 
Whoah. Gonna have to get ahold of my wifes uncle and see if he had anything to do with it. He works pretty high up in their computer programming department or whatever, makes like $300/hr.
 
The penalty is ridiculous.

When Clearpoint got hacked, the FTC made them pay for a 1yr credit watch subsciption for all the people affected.... ~$65/yr cost. TJX should be forced to do the same, and that's be 45 MILLION x $65 and hopefully put them out of business.

Putting them under would maybe get the point across to the other corporations that lax security has REAL consequences.
 
That just figures.

I was a victim of identity theft last year at about this time. Someone ran a credit check through a mortgage company and then a month later started ordering items online. They even managed to change the billing address on one of my cards. Where did they get my information? Could have been from a database at a credit card transaction processing company. Could have been a gang member in our neighborhood, stealing mail. Could have been an online hacker sniffing packets. No idea, really.

What I learned:
1) The police can't do a damned thing about it.
2) No one is held to account. Not the credit card companies, not the mortgage company (who obviously didn't check for photo ID), and most certainly not the retailers.
3) I'm not held liable for the false charges (whew), but it DOES affect my credit rating.
4) You have to ask your creditors to place a verbal password on your account (opt-in). By default, anyone with your credit card # and/or social security number can call these companies and wreak havoc.
5) Some financial institutions don't even allow you to protect your account with a verbal password.
6) You can call any of the three major credit agencies in the US and have them place a 'watch' on your accounts. This watch requires that lenders ask for photo ID and other documents when applying for credit. But this watch period is only 90 days, after which you either call to renew it or it lapses.
7) You can call any of the three major credit agencies in the US and have them place a 'stop' on your accounts. This prevent any new credit accounts from being opened. The period is 7 years.

Using cash where possible is a good idea. But if you rely on credit (read: you want to buy a car or a house some day), then credit cards are a necessary evil.
 
Using cash where possible is a good idea. But if you rely on credit (read: you want to buy a car or a house some day), then credit cards are a necessary evil.
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Most of us have college loans...paying that back or even keeping current is all you need to get credit started. Go borrow $100 from a bank and pay it back: credit established. The amount is so small you won't need credit to get started.

You definitely don't have to have a credit card to establish credit.
 
jmackay said:
While cash is grand and all.. some gas places (like costco) won't accept cash. As they are 10-13ish cents cheaper and gas around here is $3.40 a gallon every bit helps.
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Again, that's your choice...on a 15 gallon tank, you are saving a whopping $2 max.

Oh, but you chose to support BIG BUSINESS because it's a dime cheaper and they only take credit but then they lost your credit information.

You made your bed, now lie in it.
 
I had college loans totaling 20,000 USD. My credit on graduating college was so poor, the best I could do was get a savings-secured credit card (where you can only borrow up to the amount you have in your savings account). I understand that the credit pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme since then, but it was a different reality at the time.
 
How do these people keep on doing this? I mean, every single company should have a firewall that rejects connection attempts from all IP's except a list that the company keeps of subsidiaries and other people who are allowed to connect to their system.

I'm a big proponent of "Online retailing is safe!" but I am getting more and more skeptical of that as more and more of these things come into light.
 
riot8ap said:
Kinda OT here...I'm curious what bank would let you borrow such a small amount? I had thought the minimum was a thousand or so.
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There isn't any stated minimum for most banks, however there IS a stated maximum if you are a person with little credit history.
 
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