By Sandy Ornelas
Assistant News Editor
During the holiday, Target’s system was hacked and over 40 million Target shoppers’ personal information was stolen. The information taken from the system included names, debit card information, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and email adresses. The data breach occurred at Target stores between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15.
This situation has customers wondering if it is safe to shop at Target again.
On Target’s Facebook page, angry customers are sounding off about how they were affected by the security breach. One customer, Ryan Rimmel, stated that his bank account was left in the negatives due to the security hack.
Banks are taking action by notifying their customers that they are at risk and are sending new debit cards in order to protect their customers from fraud.
According to Target’s website, the issue has been resolved.
“We closed the access point that the criminals used when we discovered the breach on Dec. 15,” said corpoate.target.com.
In addition, Target’s President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer, Gregg Steinhafel, addressed the issue to Target customers by sending out a letter via email. Steinhafel states Target is offering a one year of free credit monitoring to customers as an apology for the inconvenience.
Cassie Stoats, a senior criminal justice major, says that her mother was one of the people affected by the Target security breach.
“When she found out she wanted to cancel her card, but the bank said they will send her a new card, so we are not as concerned anymore,” says Stoats.
Stoats is not worried by the data breach and will continue to shop at Target.
“I don’t like Walmart,” said Stoats.
Ariana Mariscal, a freshman geology major, had no idea that this situation was occurring.
“That’s terrible. That would piss me off,” said Mariscal.
Target is continuing to investigate the situation and is currently working with the United States Secret Service and the Department of Justice to find out who committed this crime.
If you shopped at Target between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, check your bank statements to see if there was any unusual activity.
