Target Case Study

The year 2013 was not one marked for pride for the retail chain, Target. They had one of the largest data breaches known to date that occurred between November 27th and December 15th. Not only was this the one of the largest attacks known to date of this kind, it was also quite eye opening to many who may not have paid any attention to the world of information security. The Target hack resulted in 40 million compromised credit and debit card accounts and that was just the initial known result. After some time, the research revealed that a total of as many as 110 million Target customers were the victims of this gigantic hack. Although computer crimes occur within the United States often, the bigger problem is that criminals from other countries across the oceans are attacking as well.

At first report, the data breach was discovered to have compromised all Target stores nationwide, and it involved the theft of credit card numbers and customer stored data within the magnetic strips of cards that were used in the stores. It was believed to have occurred right after Thanksgiving Day and in to December (Krebs, 2013). Apparently, online shoppers were believed to be safe from the hack and that only the stores were attacked. Now, the intrusion was believed to have resulted from a visit to one of Target’s stores by an HVAC company named Fazio Mechanical Services from Sharpsburg, PA. Krebs (2014) stated, “Target told reporters at The Wall Street Journal and Reuters that the initial intrusion into its systems was traced back to network credentials that were stolen from a third party vendor” (para. 1).

More along those lines, the attackers were successful in loading the card stealing malicious software to cash registers in the Target store...

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...ing of the end for the world against digital crime or perhaps it could become a blessing in disguise. It is quite believable that this type of crime and much more will continue and even become more prominent. However, the Target breach could teach the information security world a lesson or two on exactly what to do to either eliminate these attacks where they can or simply mitigate them when elimination is not possible. Regardless of what the future holds, the most certain outcome that must be address is that the information security world must get better at catching these types of attacks prior to the occurrence or preventing them altogether. It would be wonderful to be able to say one day that these crimes no longer exist; however, that is more likely a dream that is quite farfetched that the reality of living with criminals inside of future networks permanently.