Breach of Security in Neiman Marcus Group Ltd.

660 Words2 Pages

Neiman Marcus Group Ltd, which owns high-end retailer Neiman Marcus and discount retailer Last Call, has faced a public relations crisis in the past 12 months. The company, founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1907, has stores in 20 states and attracts customers with a high disposable income. The organization discovered in mid-December that they had fallen victim to a security breach. Approximately 1.1 million customer cards used from July 16, 2013 to October 30, 2013 were vulnerable to malicious software installed to Neiman Marcus’s system. An investigation discovered that 2,400 different customer cards were used fraudulently as a result of the breach.
Neiman Marcus shared news of the breach on January 1, 2014. The Secret Service and Attorneys General of Connecticut and Illinois are currently investigating the breach, which many believe is connected to the Target security breach. The breach is not thought to have targeted online purchases and did not access customers’ PIN data or Social Security numbers. Authorities believe the same group of hackers in Eastern Europe is responsible for both incidents, which may be connected to an even larger cyber attack.
Neiman Marcus’s President and CEO Karen Katz released a statement on the company’s website on January 22, 2014, in which she apologized for the breach and outlined the steps that the company will take to help its customers. She said the company notified all customers who shopped at either store during the affected time period whose e-mail addresses were in their database. Neiman Marcus also offered one year of free credit monitoring and identity-theft protection to customers affected by the security breach. Neiman Marcus’s rationale for releasing the letter was to explain ...

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... were not available did not find out until later. A major short-term effect of the security breach is a loss of business because customers do not feel safe shopping at Neiman Marcus or Last Call stores. However, in the long term, the breach could cause a loss of customer confidence in the brand, which will be hard to gain back if they do not take necessary steps. It is hard to say how Neiman Marcus will survive the crisis, as the facts are still unfolding, but they do not have a chance at rebuilding their image if do not they focus on visibility and helping the customers who were affected by the crisis.

Works Cited

• NeimanMarcus.com. Neiman Marcus Group, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. .

• "Neiman Marcus Breach Probed; Target Sued." The Daily Gleaner. CanW

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