As if the Target hack ordeal couldn't get any worse -- data from the retail chain's massive security breach stolen between November 27 and December 15 is popping up in huge quantities on the black market, The New York Times reported Friday.
After Target conceded Thursday that its in-store point-of-sale systems were indeed hacked, compromising as many as 40 million debit and credit card accounts, fraud industry experts are seeing the information flood online card-selling markets to the tune of a "ten- to twentyfold increase" in high-value cards.
The hack, which affected only shoppers who made purchases physically at Target stores and not online customers, was a sophisticated operation. It allowed the hackers to glean customer names, credit and debit card numbers, expiration dates, and three-digit security codes from customers, data that can then be burned onto counterfeit cards and sold on the black market typically for $20 to $45 apiece.
However, Brian Krebs, the security blogger who broke the story of the breach, reported Fridaythat batches of up to 1 million cards were selling for anywhere from $20 to as high as $100 per card.
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