Target offered hackers Black Friday sale

In-store customers’ credit and debit card data was stolen over the key holiday shopping weekend. The assault hit stores nationwide.

The bad guys somehow obtained the account data that cash registers collect when customers swipe their cards. 

“The type of data stolen — also known as ‘track data’ — allows crooks to create counterfeit cards by encoding the information onto any card with a magnetic stripe,” Krebs reports. “If the thieves also were able to intercept PIN data for debit transactions, they would theoretically be able to reproduce stolen debit cards and use them to withdraw cash from ATMs.”

ThreatWatch is a regularly updated catalog of data breaches successfully striking every sector of the globe, as reported by journalists, researchers and the victims themselves.