TJ MAXX DATA BREACH KEEPS GETTING BIGGER

The TJX Companies, which includes TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, and other retailers, has now admitted that information from over 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen, not the “limited number” and “relatively small number” reported earlier by the company. Read more on MSNBC. And that’s not all. Another 455,000 customers returning merchandise without receipts had their personal data including driver’s licenses stolen. What scares me most about this is the utter confusion over this incident from the beginning. The company not knowing what was stolen and when it was taken. Why it took them almost four years to discover that a hacker had breached their system. Why transaction data was being kept after the fact, and what was the accountability of Fifth Third Bank, TJX Companies credit card processor. A similar incident was the 40 million credit card number breach at CardSystems Solutions, Inc. in Tucson, Arizona. Unfortunately, now we have a new winner. Because business won’t self-police itself in these matters, it is obvious the consumer must be given the right to control their name and personal data.