The Target security breach is considered the largest in U.S. retail history, and an article written by KrebsonSecurity highlights some very impressive facts. The hackers stole 40 million credit and debit card numbers and 70 million personal records, which cost credit unions and community banks $200 million to replace. Target will also spend $100 million to upgrade its payment terminals and a considerable amount of time and money answering to multiple lawsuits. If you’re asking yourself what this has to do with a third-party vendor, the answer is, the hackers apparently used a heating and refrigeration company that was contracted by Target to access the retailer’s network.
