Data Breach at UPS Stores in 24 States

HONG KONG (CNNMoney)

United Parcel Service has discovered a computer breach at 51 stores, making Big Brown the latest retailer to lose customer data.

UPS (UPS) said that the hacking had escaped detection at stores in 24 states, or around 1% of its locations. At most stores, the malware attack occurred after March 26, and was eliminated by August 11.

No fraud has yet been discovered, UPS said, but customer names, postal addresses, email addresses and payment card information were compromised.

Tim Davis, president of The UPS Store, apologized in a statement for any anxiety the theft may have caused customers. He said the company had deployed "extensive resources to quickly address and eliminate this issue."

Each UPS Store is franchised and runs separate computer systems, which may have helped limit the extent of the attack. UPS said the bug was not found at any of its other businesses.

The UPS breach is the latest in a long string of incidents in which hackers have made off with retail consumer data.

Just last week, Albertson's and SuperValu announced that hackers broke into their credit and debit card payment networks. Target (TGT) has been hit, along with Adobe(ADBE), Snapchat, Michaels, Neiman Marcus, AOL (AOL, Tech30) and eBay (EBAY,Tech30).

All in all, a CNNMoney analysis found that half of all American adults were hacked in a recent 12-month period.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/08/21/technology/security/ups-store-data-hack/

Home Depot is investigating a hack that possibly exposed its customer payment information

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

The company on Tuesday confirmed it has partnered with banks and law enforcement to look into "some unusual activity" relating to customers.

Independent cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs was the first to report this, saying "a massive new batch of stolen credit and debit cards" went for sale Tuesday in the black market online.

Krebs said hackers were possibly in Home Depot's computer systems from May until now. If that's true, this might be even larger than the three-week long Target breach that affected 40 million debit and credit cards late last year, he noted.

In a statement, Home Depot spokeswoman Paula Drake said: "Protecting our customers' information is something we take extremely seriously, and we are aggressively gathering facts at this point while working to protect customers."

The company promised to alert customers as soon as it can ascertain a data breach has occurred.

This could turn out to be another giant hack like the ones that hit several brand name U.S. stores. Since late 2013, the list has gotten extensive: Albertson's, Target, Michaels, Neiman Marcus, P.F. Chang's, and SuperValu.

So many companies have been hit, CNNMoney developed it's own tool: What hackers know about you. Check it out.

For perspective, consider that Target (TGT) is still reeling from its brush with hackers. The company's latest figures estimate the damage so far at $148 million--and that number continues to rise. The value of its stock has fallen nearly 5% this year, and the company's CEO resigned.

Meanwhile, Target customers haven't felt any direct impact--that they can attribute to the hack, anyway. But that's partly because banks won't let customers know what big hack forced them to temporarily freeze accounts, nix fraudulent expenses, and reissue debit and credit cards.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/02/technology/security/home-depot-hacked/