April 13, 2007

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  NEWS: TJX Thieves Took Time

  With the TJX Cos. data breach and subsequent grand-scale information theft now being considered possibly the largest crime of its nature on record, it is now being considered that a major contributing factor in inflating the scope of the incident was the 17 month window that the crooks involved had in which to carry it out. Someone – or, more likely, a few someones - had carte blanche inside TJX Cos.' computer systems. Without anyone the wiser, the intruder(s) installed code on the discount retailer's systems to systematically unearth, collect and transmit account data from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards.
  
  Experts say that the nearly year-and-a-half timeframe encompassing the breach is a mixed blessing for investigators trying to track down the hacker(s). On one hand, they say, the length of time that was spent inside the computer systems makes it more likely that the attacker(s) made mistakes that might lead to them being tracked down. On the other, the fact that they had almost unlimited time to cover their tracks is predicted to make it very hard for investigators to find incriminating evidence.
  
  A TJX spokesperson said that insider involvement is not being ruled out of the investigation. The company claims that about three-quarters of the 45.7 million cards had either expired by the time of the theft, or the stolen information didn't include security code data from the cards' magnetic stripes, since TJX finally started masking those codes by storing them as asterisks rather than numbers. The case has become a global investigation, with incidents of fraud believed tied to the TJX breach as far away as Sweden and Hong Kong. The only arrests connected to the case to date have occurred in Florida, where 10 people who aren't believed to be the TJX hackers are accused of using stolen TJX customer data to buy up large sums of Wal-Mart gift cards.
  
  
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