The Target security breach that left millions of debit and credit card holders at risk of becoming victims of fraud left experts pondering the question of how such a massive theft might have occurred.
Theories varied, but the scant details released by the retailer Thursday left some experts believing the criminals had to have some inside knowledge of the company's point-of-sale system in order to compromise it so effectively.
Either people inside the organization were involved or, "at the very least, (the thieves) had sophisticated knowledge and a clear understanding of the cardholder data flows, in order to pinpoint where to steal this very specific data and then exfiltrate it," Mark Bower, director of information protection solutions at Voltage Security, said.
Target reported Thursday that card data, including customer name, credit or debit card number and the card's expiration date and CVV code, had been stolen from 40 million accounts used for shopping between November 27 and December 15. The CVV code is the three-digit security number found on the back of cards.
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